Astronomers urged to prepare for an unforgettable sight: a comet with a huge tail flies

It stretched over a distance several diameters of the moon.

Astronomers advise getting ready for an unforgettable celestial spectacle that awaits us in October 2024. During this period, comet C / 2023 A3, recently discovered by astronomers, called Zijinshan-ATLAS, will approach the Earth. Its flight will be clearly visible in our northern hemisphere from October 12 to 20, 2024, mainly due to its giant tail. Its length, according to preliminary estimates, will reach several diameters of the Moon, it is also possible that it will be longer than the handle of the Ursa Major bucket.

The pioneers of the new comet were Chinese scientists from the Tsuchinshan Observatory (Tsuchinshan – “Purple Mountain”), who saw it through telescopes on January 9 this year. Despite the fact that they immediately sent data on the “object +19 magnitude in the constellation Serpens” to the Center for Minor Planets (an organization of the International Astronomical Union that collects and systematizes observational data on small bodies in the solar system), no one could re-discover it for a long time. Everyone decided that the object was lost, when suddenly on February 22 the comet was again seen by astronomers, only this time working on the South African ATLAS telescope. The comet appeared before them already a size larger – +18 stellar magnitude (the digital value of the stellar magnitude decreases with the increase in the astronomical object of observation; for example, the Moon has a stellar magnitude of -12.7). As a result, the guest, who is rushing towards the Earth at full speed, was named a double name – in honor of the Chinese and South African observatories – Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

The comet’s official brightness forecast, reported by AstroAlert with reference to the Minor Planet Center, indicates that the comet can be observed from September 20 to October 20, 2024, when its brightness will exceed +2 magnitude. In the interval between these dates – from October 12 – the brightness of the comet will increase to 0 – +1 magnitude. Moreover, these data are given without taking into account the cometary coma – gas and dust dispersion, which will occur when the celestial guest is between the Sun and the Earth. So, taking this “cloud” into account, the maximum brightness of the comet can reach a magnitude of -1 magnitude in mid-October, that is, it will be equal in brightness to the star Sirius (-1.5 magnitude). At this moment, the heavenly wanderer will pass 75 million kilometers from the Earth.

In general, everyone needs to prepare for a bright sky show – the tailed guest will be visible in the night sky with the naked eye.

— Comet C/2023 A3 is not a giant comet (this is determined by the size of their nucleus), — says Artem Novichonok, head of the educational astronomical laboratory of Petrozavodsk State University. – Its core is average, presumably reaches 5-10 kilometers. But its good visibility will be affected by the large amount of dust surrounding it during the flight, and the tail itself. It is expected to be significantly brighter than comet NEOWISE 2020, which has been visible to the naked eye for several weeks.

The comet, which will arrive in the fall of 2024, will be comparable to the bright Comet McNaught, which visited us in 2007, Newbie said. Its diameter was also at least 5 km, and the maximum magnitude reached -6.

It is expected that the comet will be so bright that it can be observed even during the day, near the Sun. So that it does not blind, observers usually hide from it behind the corner of some building, so that only that part of the sky where the comet is visible opens to them. At night, C/2023 A3 will be visible just after sunset, almost at the horizon, on the western side of the sky.

– It is noteworthy that the new comet will have not only one, long tail, but also the second, the so-called anti-tail (or, rather, a short spike), directed not against the Sun, which is consistent with the laws of physics, but, on the contrary, towards it, says the astronomer. – In fact, the comet’s anti-tail is an optical illusion caused by the passage of the Earth through the plane of the comet’s orbit.

The orbital period of the Zijinshan-ATLAS comet around the Sun has not yet been specified by researchers. There is only an assumption that the last time she flew to us 20-30 thousand years ago.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 28981 dated March 2, 2023

Newspaper headline:
This funny comet