Once-in-a-160000-year comet expected next week – IOTW Report

Once-in-a-160000-year comet expected next week

Space.com

The brightest comet in nearly 20 years — comet G3 ATLAS (C/2024) — is expected to reach its peak brilliance later this week into early next week.

The only question is: “Will you actually be able to see it?”

This celestial paradox belongs to Comet 2024 G3 (ATLAS), which was first sighted on April 5 of last year by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey, in images obtained with a 0.5-meter (19.7-inch) reflector telescope located in Rio Hurtado, Chile. At the time of discovery, the comet was 407 million miles (655 million km) from Earth and shining at an exceedingly faint magnitude of +19. That’s roughly 158,000 times dimmer than the faintest star visible to the naked eye.

https://www.space.com/the-universe/comets/once-in-a-160000-year-comet-g3-atlas-could-shine-as-bright-as-venus-next-week-heres-what-to-expect

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