A new comet is passing through our solar system! Time will tell if it's the brightest of the year when it appears this weekend, but it will be visible for several days!
Starting on Oct. 14, a comet known as Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) will be visible in the sky! According to NASA, if the comet's tail is well-illuminated by sunlight, it could be visible by the unaided eye.
The best time to observe it will be Oct. 14 through Oct. 24, especially using binoculars or a small telescope.
This ancient and icy dust ball is streaking through our neighborhood on an 80,000-year orbit from the distant reaches of the Oort Cloud. The comet is currently speeding through the inner solar system and made its closest to the Sun in late September and will be at its closest to Earth this weekend.
It will quickly rise higher each subsequent evening, making it easier to observe, but it'll also be getting a little fainter each night. As with all comets, predictions for how bright it could get are uncertain. If the comet's tail is brilliantly illuminated by the Sun, predictions show that it could become bright enough to see with the unaided eye. But comets have a way of surprising us, so we'll just have to wait and see.
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