Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is heading towards Earth. It has begun to collapse.

Comet Tsochenshan-Atlas is an object that was supposed to provide phenomena in the night sky this fall. According to astronomers’ calculations, the object, classified as C/2023 A3, will then become brighter than most stars. But will this be the case? Probably not…

First, comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is currently approaching the Sun from the farthest parts of the solar system. We know that even The closest approach to Earth is scheduled for October 12, 2024..The object will then be about 70.6 million kilometers from our planet.

True, it is not very close, because for comparison, the Moon is about 384.4 thousand years. km. from Earth. However, the distance to Mars is about 56 million km. The comet will not be in the immediate vicinity of our planet, but it should still be clearly visible in the night sky and its brightness will reach -3.5 magnitude. But this is doubtful.

The thing about comets is that they break apart when they get close to the center of the solar system. Icy bodies It starts to heat up and this is what happens to the object C/2023 A3Unfortunately, this won’t change until at least September 27, because by that day the comet will be approaching the Sun.

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas will eventually be only about 58.6 million kilometers from the Sun. That’s pretty close, because Mercury moves in a similar orbit, and Earth moves in an orbit about three times larger. This could cause the object to decay so much that only a few October observations of our planet will remain.

Scientists say that comet Tsochenshan-Atlas could indeed face a catastrophic scenario, and it will happen before it reaches perihelion, the point of its closest approach to the sun. And when that happens, there will be no going back.

The object was discovered on February 22, 2023, by the ATLAS telescope at the Sutherland Observatory in South Africa. At that time, the comet was 10.9 billion kilometers from the Sun. C/2023 A3 will not come close to any of the large planets in our system during its journey.