(Credit: Filipp Romanov/EarthSky)Īs C/2023 A3 passes through the inner solar system, the tail will grow and make it visible to the naked eye. At that time, it will be about a quarter of an astronomical unit (41 million kilometers) from Earth. Your best chance to glimpse the comet will come on Oct. By August, the comet will be looping around the sun and blocked from view on its way to perihelion (its closest point to the sun) on Sep. The comet won't be visible with the unaided eye until mid-next year, but astrophotographers might start getting snapshots of C/2023 A3 in June 2024. This is how scientists confirmed the object was a comet rather than an asteroid.Ĭurrently, C/2023 A3 is between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter (Opens in a new window), and it's headed our way. It showed a compact coma with a short, straight tail. Following its discovery, astronomers spotted C/2023 A3 in images taken with the Zwicky Transient Facility. Its orbit is still in flux after its recent discovery, but astronomers calculate it completes one orbit every 80,660.

Like many comets, it is in a long elliptical orbit that takes it to the solar system's outer reaches before the sun's gravity tugs it back. The object initially appeared in data from January 2023, but its presence was not noticed until late February.

Next year, this object could become one of the brightest in the night sky as it passes close to Earth.Īstronomers discovered this long-period comet using the Purple Mountain Observatory in China and the ATLAS telescope in Hawaii (hence the name). It's a clunky moniker, but you ought to remember it.

This time, astronomers were on the lookout and gave it a name: C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). For untold eons, a comet has been drifting through space, paying a visit to Earth every 80,000 years or so.

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