Those who love to look at the night sky are already well aware of the spectacular celestial light show that Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is scheduled to put on in a few days when it emerges from behind the Sun into our early evening sky, with closest approach to Earth on October 12.
Amazingly, a second and even rarer sungrazing comet has just been discovered that could be even brighter than the planet Venus — but only if it actually survives its upcoming close encounter with the Sun on October 28. From Gizmodo today:
The Hawaii-based ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey spotted the comet on Friday, September 27, and it quickly caught the attention of astronomers for its potential to put on a spectacular show in the night skies. The comet is still so new that it doesn’t have a name yet, but it has been designated as comet A11bP7I.
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Although it doesn’t have its own name, it is part of a group of comets called Kreutz sungrazers. “Sungrazing comets get their name from their uniquely close-approach to the Sun during perihelion,” Ariel Graykowsi, lead of Unistellar’s comet campaign, which partners with citizen scientists to monitor comet activity, told Gizmodo.
Unfortunately, most sungrazer comets don’t survive their approach — either disintegrating entirely or crashing into the Sun itself. But for those lucky few that do survive, the results can be incredible:
One such example is comet Lovejoy. Discovered in 2011, the long period comet and Kreutz sungrazer survived its perihelion and emitted a unique blue and green glow that lit up the night skies… In 1965, comet Ikeya-Seki was discovered by two amateur astronomers from Japan. The comet also survived its rendezvous with the Sun, and reached a brightness magnitude of -11, or nearly as bright as a half-Moon and visible to the unaided eye.
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“I’m excited to see what this comet does,” Graykowsi said. The newly discovered comet is set to make its closest approach to the Sun on October 28. If it does survive, which I’m really hoping it does, the comet could reach a magnitude of -7. That’s brighter than Venus, the brightest planet in the solar system, which has a magnitude of -4.6.
The comet will likely be visible to observers in the southern hemisphere as it approaches perihelion, so there’s a chance we’ll be able to see it before it either breaks apart or outshines Venus, according to EarthSky. Following its close encounter with the Sun, the comet has the potential to wow the northern hemisphere with one hell of a light show.
This could be quite the Halloween for comet fans!
