Scientists have discovered a comet that will fly by the Earth in 2024 and will be visible to the naked eye (photo)

Astronomers have spotted a new comet, C/2023 A3, flying toward Earth. In the fall of 2024, it will be as bright as the stars in the night sky. Space newspaper reported about it.

The comet was detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on February 22. This space object was also spotted by scientists from the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on January 9.

Read also: What a comet which flew as close as possible to Earth for the first time in 50,000 years, looked like

Now, this celestial body is located between Saturn and Jupiter and is moving at a speed of 290,664 kilometers per hour. Scientists expect it to approach the minimum distance to Earth on October 13, 2024.

According to calculations, the comet orbits the Sun for 80,660 years. It will approach the minimum distance to the star on September 28, 2024, closing the circle of its orbit.

However, this comet may break apart as it travels through the solar system. Comets like this one are balls of ice, rock, and dust that often break down under the heat of the Sun.

If C/2023 A3 remains intact, it will be visible through non-professional telescopes as early as June next year. At its closest approach to the Sun, the comet will be below the horizon, so it will be difficult to observe it on most of the Earth.

However, in October, night sky observers will have the opportunity to see it when it passes through the Serpens Caput (Serpent Head) (the western part of the Serpens constellation) and into the Ophiuchus constellation. During this flyby, the comet can be as bright for observers from our planet as the stars in the sky.

However, little is known about this comet, in particular, scientists do not yet know its size. Without additional data, it is impossible to draw accurate conclusions about whether it will survive a close encounter with a star.

Earlier, NASA spotted two giant potentially dangerous asteroids that approached the Earth.

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