DENVER — Prepare to spot a rare, bright comet.
The space rock is slinging toward Earth from the outer reaches of the solar system, making its closest pass last weekend. It should be visible through the end of October, clear skies permitting.
Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas should be bright enough to see with the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will give a better view.
"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.
How to view the comet
Those hoping to spot comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas should look to the west about an hour after sunset on a clear night.
The comet should be visible from both the northern and southern hemispheres.
What is a comet?
Comets are frozen leftovers from the solar system’s formation billions of years ago. They heat up as they swing toward the sun, releasing their characteristic streaming tails.
In 2023, a green comet that last visited Earth 50,000 years ago zoomed by the planet again. Other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020, and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the mid to late 1990s.
Where did comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas come from?
The comet, also designated C/2023 A3, was discovered last year and is named for the observatories in China and South Africa that spied it.
It came from what’s known as the Oort Cloud well beyond Pluto. After making its closest approach about 44 million miles (71 million kilometers) of Earth, it won't return for another 80,000 years — assuming it survives the trip.
Several comets are discovered every year, but many burn up near the sun or linger too far away to be visible without special equipment, according to Larry Denneau, a lead researcher with the Atlas telescope that helped discover the comet.
Share your comet photos
Check out the photo gallery below of the comet photos 9NEWS viewers have shared with us so far.
To submit a photo or video, share with the 9NEWS app's Near Me feature.
- Open the 9NEWS app on your smartphone.
- On the bottom right, you'll see a button called 'Near Me'—click it.
- Click the orange button in the top left part that says "Share with Us."
- Upload your photo or video directly from your device.
- Fill out the fields: give it a title, a credit, your email, and tell us where it was taken.
- It will then be reviewed and could be used on 9NEWS and 9NEWS.com!
