An incredibly rare cosmic event is about to take place this weekend.
If you’ve ever wondered what the night sky looked like when humans first ventured out of Africa, now’s your chance to get a glimpse. Comet C/2023 A3 — better known as Tsuchinshan-ATLA S — is making its grand return to Earth for the first time in 80,000 years.
Yes, that’s right—this celestial visitor hasn’t passed by our planet since mammoths roamed the Earth!
The comet is set to be at its brightest and light up the pre-dawn sky over four consecutive mornings - starting Friday and running through until Monday. If you’re an early riser (or willing to set an alarm), you’ll be able to spot it just before the sun takes over the horizon.
Live Science reports that the comet should (emphasis on should) be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye - but avid stargazers will have a better chance of capturing this phenomenon using a telescope or a pair of binoculars.
As of now, the comet is about 157 million miles away, but it’s closing in fast. The real show will happen when it reaches its closest point to the sun — known as perihelion — on Friday.
If you’re based in the Northern Hemisphere, you will want to be looking a few degrees above the east-southeast horizon, roughly 40-30 minutes before sunrise between September 27 and September 30. But there’s also a chance that the comet should be visible by October 2.
Additionally, between October 10 and October 30, the comet will once again be visible in the skies, but this time, you’ll have to be looking west just after sunset.
First discovered early last year, scientists estimate that this cosmic traveler last swung by Earth during the Ice Age. Now, after millennia, it’s hurtling toward the sun at an incredible speed of 150,000 miles per hour.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick even caught a glimpse of it from space, sharing a stunning time-lapse video from the International Space Station. "This comet is going to make for some really cool images as it gets closer to the sun," Dominick tweeted, per the Daily Mail.
So, what should you expect to see? Stuart Atkinson, an amateur astronomer, described it best: “It will look like a fuzzy star with a misty tail.”
And here’s a pro tip for those in the UK: You’ll want to head outside around 06:15 BST on Friday, just in time for some pre-work comet spotting.
Comets, affectionately nicknamed "dirty snowballs" by astronomers, are essentially big balls of ice, dust, and rock that journey toward the inner solar system from the distant Oort Cloud. As they get closer to the sun, the heat causes them to release gas and dust, creating that recognizable tail that stretches across the sky.
Minjae Kim, a space expert from the University of Warwick, explains: “C/2023 A3 has an orbital period of approximately 80,000 years, classifying it as a long-period comet. Its behavior and appearance can be unpredictable, but if all goes well, we could see a brilliant comet with a tail visible to the naked eye.”
And for the truly star-obsessed, there’s more cosmic magic on the horizon. At the end of November, another comet, 333P/LINEAR, will be visible with large binoculars or a small telescope. But with an orbital period of just eight years, it’s not quite as special as the once-in-a-lifetime view of Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.
So, mark your calendars and set your alarms — this is one sky show you won’t want to miss.
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