Posted on by David Dickinson

Death of a Comet: S1 Didn’t Survive its Sungrazing Plummet

Jaeger Comet
Comet S1 ATLAS from October 19th. Credit: Michael Jaeger and Gerald Rhemann.

Sungrazer C/2024 S1 ATLAS broke apart at perihelion.

Alas, a ‘Great Halloween Comet’ was not to be. The Universe teased us just a bit this month, with the potential promise of a second naked eye comet in October: C/2024 S1 ATLAS. Discovered on the night of September 27th by the Asteroid Terrestrial Last-alert impact System (ATLAS) all-sky survey, this inbound comet was surprisingly bright and active for its relative distance from the Sun at the time of discovery. This gave the comet the potential to do what few sungrazers have done: survive a blisteringly close perihelion passage near the Sun.

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Posted on by David Dickinson

Will Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Shine Brighter Than Expected?

ISS Comet

Now is the time to catch Comet A3-Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at dawn.

The window is now open. If skies are clear, set your alarm heading into this weekend to see Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at dawn. We’re already seeing great views of the comet this week from southern observers and astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The visibility window is now even creeping up to the southern tier latitudes of the contiguous United States (CONUS). If fortune favors us, the comet could hit an easy naked eye magnitude +2 by next week, and forward scattering could even boost this into negative magnitudes… the rare term ‘daytime comet’ is even getting kicked around a bit in cometwatching circles.

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