There are about 4,000 known comets in our Solar System so far and most of them come from beyond Pluto, in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.
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Image credits:Gerald Rhemann
The latest research showed that Tsuchinshan-ATLAS’s brightness is between 2 and 4, while, in comparison, the brightest visible star in the night sky, Sirius, has a magnitude of –1.46. Yet unfortunately, the comet won’t be visible in daylight hours, except at twilight.
I guess it’s interesting to note that in the past 300 years of astronomical observation, only 9 previous comets have been bright enough to be able to see them during the day (includingComet Westin 1976 andComet Hale-Boppin 1997).
While so many people all around the world are trying to catch the best shot of this very special approach, Gerald Rhemann is definitely among the ones that did it in the most detailed and mesmerizing way.
He started astrophotography back in 1987 and within two years, comets were and still are his favorite objects, including one of the most beautiful and brightest ever seen, comet Hale-Bopp, in 1997, which was visible to the naked eye high in the sky for several months.
“In 2001, I decided to travel to one of the darkest places in the world – Namibia,” the astrophotographer shared in the interview withBored Panda. “I have been there 11 times now and built an observatory on the Tivoli farm, which I also can use remote from Vienna.”
Asked what is the most special about Tsuchinshan-ATLAS comet,Gerald mentioned its dustiness.
“The best time to see it will be between October 12 and 14. You will find the comet very low in the western sky one hour after sunset,” he shared.
Image credits:Matthew Dominick
Tsuchinshan-ATLAS has already stoked so muchexcitementall over the internet that some people are even calling it “the comet of the century”. Some people believe that this comet will outshine everything but the Moon and will stretch its tail over a huge portion of the sky, while others remain more skeptical.
“By the looks of it, it is already visible to the unaided eye in good conditions, and there is a chance that it will get considerably brighter,” said Dr. Gregory Brown, senior public astronomy officer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. “But how bright? We honestly don’t know.”
Image credits:Pepe Chambó
Thescientistssurmise that Tsuchinshan-ATLAS came from the most distant region in our solar system – Oort Cloud – a giant shell of billions of comets.
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