Only spotted on Sept. 27 by astronomers at the ATLAS survey in Hawaii, C/2024 S1 (Atlas) is a large “Kreutz sungrazer,” a fragment of a giant comet that broke apart over a thousand years ago.
The newly discovered comet will approach the Earth at its maximum distance on Saturday, October 12. The last time she flew to the planet was 80 thousand years ago. The comet will be visible in the sky ...
It's been a tense few months for astronomy fans hoping to see Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) coming up to its closest approach to Earth on October 12. Back in July, analysis by one ...
Apparently, they are all fragments of a single giant comet that broke apart in the distant past. And it's quite probable that these fragments have themselves broken up repeatedly as they've ...