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A newly discovered comet is heading for a dangerously close encounter with the Sun, which could either destroy it or make it shine brighter than Venus.
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.
This newly spotted comet should not be confused with Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinan-Atlas), which China’s Tsuchinshan Observatory discovered in January 2023 and is now visible to the unaided eye.
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. “Most sungrazing comets have a very similar orbit, which tells astronomers that these comets are likely fragments of a parent body.”
Astronomer Heinrich Kreutz first noticed that several comets share similar orbits, coming within a very close distance to the Sun. The Kreutz sungrazers likely all came from a big comet that broke apart years ago, and they all tend to be tiny little guys. That’s why during the comets’ close approach to the Sun, they either completely disintegrate or crash into the star. Some lucky comets, however, do survive the close encounter.
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. Unfortunately, the comet’s nucleus completely disintegrated just a few days after its perihelion. 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.
“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. “I hope it survives perihelion enough for us to see it,” Graykowsi said.
More: Comet A3 Could Be the Year’s Brightest- Here’s How to See It
