NEW YORK: The Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is predicted to brighten up the sky in 2024 and will be visible to the naked eye, which was seen in the last month of February while the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) was surveying the sky using the 0.5-m f/2 Schmidt reflector telescope operated at the Sutherland Observatory in South Africa.
The comets are also regarded as “dirty snowballs” by astronomers, which are made up of ice, dust and rocks at our solar system’s outer edge.
The comet melts down as they come closer to the sun releasing the steam of dust and gas forming a tail as it travels forward.
Every year, dozens of comets are spotted by astronomers all around the world. The recent comet was the Green Comet which passed by the Earth earlier last month.
Earlier, A3 was not given importance but as its orbit was determined it was known that this comet — with magnitude 18.7 — was noticed on January 9 by the Purple Mountain Observatory in China. –Agencies
