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May 09, 2023Colorado photographers capture dramatic images of once-in-80,000-years comet - CBS Colorado
Oct 17, 2024By Logan Smith
Updated on: October 15, 2024 / 1:29 PM MDT / CBS Colorado
A comet discovered last year as it approached our solar system is now in full view in Colorado's night sky.
C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS can be seen above the southwestern horizon following sunset. The comet, also known as the Oort Cloud comet, was identified by observers at China's Tsuchinshan – or "Purple Mountain" – Observatory and an ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) telescope in South Africa, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It was officially named in honor of both observatories.
Based on its trajectory and calculated orbit, scientist believe the comet won't be seen by human eyes again for 80,000 years.
The comet successfully made its closest transit past the Sun on Sept. 27 and came within 44 million miles of Earth on Oct. 12, per NASA. It is gradually coming into better view for the Northern hemisphere
Their was concern the comet would not survive perihelion, or the pass through its closest range to the Sun. Comet ISON disintegrated in the Sun's heat and gravity in November 2013. The same happened in 1973 to Comet Kohoutek.
"Comets are more fragile than people may realize, thanks to the effects of passing close to the Sun on their internal water ice and volatiles such as carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide," said NASA astronomer Bill Cooke, who leads the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is massive in size and length. Its head currently measures a whopping two miles in diameter. The tail, which is largely comprised of tiny pieces of ice and dust, is believed to be as long as 18 million miles.
Peak viewing is expected to last until Oct. 26.
Logan Smith is an assignment desk editor at CBS Colorado in Denver with more than 30 years of journalism experience in digital, television and print media.
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