Sky-gazers in the Northern Hemisphere can spot C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS with their naked eyes on Saturday, astronomers said.
It has been dubbed “the comet of the century” because of how bright and visible it could be, according to the United Kingdom’s Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
On Saturday, the comet will come within about 44 million miles (nearly 71 million kilometers) of Earth. It will initially appear low on the western horizon about an hour after sunset.
A Once-in-a-Lifetime Event
It was initially discovered in 2023 by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China and an ATLAS telescope in South Africa last year.
The comet was visible in the Southern Hemisphere last month and will be in the Northern Hemisphere this weekend.
“It’ll be this fuzzy circle with a long tail stretching away from it,” said Sally Brummel, planetarium manager at the Bell Museum in Minnesota.
RAS Deputy Director Dr. Robert Massey said taking photos of the comet may be possible, particularly using a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera.
With an orbit of 80,000 years, Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was last during the era of the Neanderthals, according to NASA.
According to the models of The Paris Observatory’s Institute of Celestial Mechanics, it could be “ejected from the solar system and lost among the stars.”
lo/dh (dpa, AFP, AP)
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