If we go back to the medieval era, we will remember that at that time comets were believed to be an unmistakable sign that a war, a plague or the death of a king was approaching. Medieval men would have said, given the current coronavirus pandemic in the world, that it would be the right time for a comet to make its appearance. To this day, we know that comets are dirty snowballs that remain from the material that formed the solar system and that they are not related to terrestrial events, but what is clear is that they will offer us a spectacle worth seeing with our eyes. .
History of a comet
The comet in question is C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was discovered for the first time on December 28, 2019 and, although at that time we noticed it quite weak, it seems that it has been gaining in luminosity since then, hence astronomers are quite excited about the astronomical event. And it is quite a few years since the last time a comet gave us a good show: it was in March 2013 thanks to Comet PanSTARRS , which was visible, although not with the brightness we expected. The same happened with McNaught in 2007 and Lovejoy in 2011.
However, ATLAS is on its way to becoming one of the brightest comets to grace our skies, comparable to the fantastic Hale-Bopp in 1997.
“Right now, the comet is releasing large amounts of frozen volatile gases ,” Karl Battams of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC, told SpaceWeatherArchive (SWA). “That is why it is shining so bright.”
The new comet, named after the telescope that discovered it (ATLAS in Hawaii) has an almost parabolic orbit – that is, its orbit extends deeper into the cosmos and will not return to this point for thousands of years. -And according to experts, when you make your closest approach to the Sun, it will be able to illuminate anywhere on the planet from a visible magnitude of +1 to -5 (the brighter the object, the lower its magnitude). At the moment it has magnitude 8 and its brightness is constantly increasing.
Yes indeed. Keep in mind that comets have quite unpredictable behavior and we could run into it in the end it fades and we are left without the great show. However, having an orbit very similar to a Great Comet that became an incredibly bright object in the night sky in the 19th century (the Great Comet of 1844) gives us hope.
When will it pass near us?
Its closest approach to the Sun, the perihelion, will take place on May 31 and will pass 37.8 million kilometers from our star. If its activity continues, we will be able to contemplate the wake of the comet for several weeks. It will be visible after sunset until it disappears completely. Experts predict that Comet ATLAS could reach a magnitude of -8.2 at its perigee and -11.7 at its perihelion.
Dozens of comets visit our inner solar system each year, but most are so faint that you need a telescope to see them. Will ATLAS offer us a different scenario? At the moment, it is exciting to know that each night is getting brighter and brighter . If you’re curious, he’s currently crossing the Big Dipper and moving slowly.
