THE COMET OF THE YEAR

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS treated stargazers in both hemispheres to an impressive display.

MARK ZASTROW

COMETS ARE NOTORIOUSLY UNPREDICTABLE. Some of the most spectacular of these icy visitors pop up unexpectedly, careening toward the Sun and bursting out in spectacular fashion with little advance notice. Others are spotted over a year before they make their closest approach, but break apart and fizzle out. Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was the rare comet that arrived with a year and a half of fanfare and lived up to the hype, serving up naked-eye views for weeks. If it was not a Great Comet, it was at least a very, very good one. Formally known as C/2023 A3, this ice ball from the outer solar system was first discovered in images taken Jan. 9, 2023, by a telescope operated by Purple Mountain Observatory near Nanjing in China’s Jiangsu Province. A month…

You're reading a preview of

Astronomy (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2025

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.