{"id":5125,"date":"2024-10-12T03:00:33","date_gmt":"2024-10-12T03:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/excitement-over-comet-of-the-century-heres-how-and-when-to-spot-it\/"},"modified":"2024-10-12T03:00:33","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T03:00:33","slug":"excitement-over-comet-of-the-century-heres-how-and-when-to-spot-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/12\/excitement-over-comet-of-the-century-heres-how-and-when-to-spot-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Excitement over \u2018comet of the century\u2019 \u2013 here\u2019s how and when to spot it"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stargazers will have the chance to spot what could be the most impressive comet of the year for the next couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

Comet A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, has come to be known as the \u201ccomet of the century\u201d by excited astronomers, such is the anticipation about how bright and visible it might be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

People in the southern hemisphere have already had a glimpse of the comet, but, from Saturday as it comes to within approximately 44 million miles of Earth, it could also be seen in the northern hemisphere.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what is Comet A3 and how likely are we to get a good view of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

When was it discovered?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The comet was discovered independently in January 2023 by two observatories \u2013 China\u2019s Tsuchinshan (Purple Mountain) Observatory and South Africa\u2019s ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) \u2013 and was named after them.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

It visits the inner solar system roughly every 80,000 years, so it would last have been visible from Earth when the Neanderthals were walking the planet.<\/p>\n

Where is it from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It comes from a place called the Oort Cloud, which, according to Dr Robert Massey of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), is \u201can incredibly large\u201d distance from Earth, much further away than the planets and asteroids we are used to seeing.<\/p>\n

The Oort Cloud is a giant spherical shell surrounding our solar system which is home to billions of objects, including comets.<\/p>\n

When can it be seen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was visible between 27 September and 2 October, but a better chance to see it comes from 12 to 30 October.<\/p>\n

NASA astronomer Bill Cooke said the best approach is to \u201cchoose a dark vantage point just after full nightfall and look to the southwest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd savour the view,\u201d he added, because by early November, the comet will be gone again for the next 800 centuries.<\/p>\n

How bright could it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Massey warned that the \u201ccomet of the century\u201d may prove to be no more than a nickname.<\/p>\n

He said it\u2019ll be a \u201cnice comet\u201d but probably less visible than NEOWISE was in 2020 or Hale-Bopp in the late 1990s \u2013 and many stargazers remember the latter as being a \u201creally dazzling object\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Cooke said comets are often hard to predict because they\u2019re extended objects.<\/p>\n

He said if there is a lot of forward scattering \u2013 causing sunlight to bounce more intensely off all the gas and debris in the comet\u2019s tail and its coma, it can make them easier for observers to see.<\/p>\n

Can I get a picture of it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Massey suggests using \u201ca good DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera\u201d and trying for a set of exposures, as a lot of astrophotographers do.<\/p>\n

If you have a good mobile phone camera and a small telescope, he said, you can \u201chold the mobile phone against the eyepiece of the telescope and try to take a picture that way\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dr Massey said that method \u201cworked well with comets like NEOWISE and it might work well with this one, depending on how bright it is\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if it\u2019s genuinely easy to spot, you might be able to pick up your mobile phone, rest on something, and just point and shoot,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

What will happen to it afterwards?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr <\/strong>Cooke said Comet A3 isn\u2019t expected to pass too near the planets, but eventually \u201ccould be flung out of our solar system \u2013 like a stone from a sling \u2013 due to the gravitational influence of other worlds and its own tenuous bond with the sun\u201d.<\/p>\n

But he said he \u201clearned a long time ago not to gamble on comets. We\u2019ll have to wait and see\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on sky.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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