Port Townsend, Maine — Comets may become the biggest thing in the sky, other than the moon, by the middle of next month. This weekend, they were hard to see in Maine’s early morning skies.
Maybe not. It’s not clear. This is why.
It’s extremely hard to tell ahead of time how bright a comet will be, and it’s even harder with this one because we’ve never seen it pass through our solar system before.
But a lot of people who like to look at the sky are hopeful that C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be the “comet of the century,” even more amazing than NEOWISE, which came this way in July 2020.
The Purple Mountain Observatory in China was the first place astronomers saw Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in January 2023. But after a few weeks, experts could no longer see the faint, faraway point of light.
Then, in February of that year, NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System of telescopes saw Tsuchinshan-ATLAS again while looking up at the sky for things it didn’t know about.
Now it has finally hit our part of the galaxy. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS got very close to the sun on Friday, September 27. It is now going around our star in a straight line.
“Amateur astronomers and scientists all over the world have made thousands more observations of this comet since it was first found,” said Asa Stahl, an astrophysicist from California and award-winning children’s book author. ”
A lot of people are keeping an eye on Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in the hopes that it will get so bright that it shines brighter than the stars, Jupiter, and even Venus.”
Comets are basically big, dirty snowballs of ice and biological matter that were left over when our solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago. This one is no different. Its tail is made up of dust and gases that are turning into smoke as it moves toward the sun.
When we look up at night, the light from the sun hits that tail, which is where the problem lies.
The light that a comet sends back out spreads at a shallow angle, and we have to be in the right place to see how bright it is. Also, the make-up of each comet is different; some are made of gases that are more likely to escape than others.
Also, scientists think that Tsuchinshan-Atlas has probably never been around the sun before. During the process, it could break up and disappear.
But because it’s new to the solar system, it could be amazing. On its first trip around the sun, it will burn off a lot of gas and dust. We can only be sure if we wait and see.
Stahl said, “Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has already become about a million times brighter over the last couple of years as it has moved closer to the sun.”
Now is the time to see it. Get up early, about an hour before dawn, and find a place far from city lights with a good view of the east. A good pair of glasses that gather light will be very helpful.
Look at Sextans, a cluster that not many people have heard of. It is between Leo to the north and Hydra to the southwest. At least Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be easy to see if the weather is good. It will just look like a small mark.
By the middle of next month, things might be very different. By October 10, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be very close to Earth. If everything goes well, it could be a beautiful sight.
You won’t even have to get up early to see it then.
Instead, look toward the west about an hour after the sun goes down. At that point, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will be moving quickly through the stars Leo and Virgo. People in Maine who live in towns with lots of light should be able to see it if it’s putting on a show.
At this point, this is our only chance to see Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, no matter how great or bad the view is. Scientists think that the comet won’t come back this way for several hundred thousand years based on the shape of its path.
There’s also a good chance that it will be thrown out of the solar system and continue hurtling into space, never to return.