Tsuchinshan ATLAS comet

Last week we had the amazing opportunity to see the Tsuchinshan ATLAS comet in our evening sky. Due to the light pollution, it was hard to see with the naked eye but thanks to the help of my phone we got some pictures of it. The comet was a once in a lifetime event, previously it was thought to happen once every 80,000 years but new data showed that at its current track the comet may leave our solar system for good.

Comets we always see with a tail but we know that comets are simply put just big rocks falling in space so how come comets have tails?

When a comet approaches the sun, it gets warmer due to the immense heat. The heat causes the ice within the rock or also called Nucleus to turn into gas. These gases and dust from the nucleus become what is called a coma and a tail.

What is a Coma? A Coma is a halo of evaporated gas and dust which surrounds the nucleus. The coma and the nucleus form the head of the comet. An invisible layer of hydrogen that is surrounding the coma is called the hydrogen envelope.

Now the part that most of us see when we look at comets is the dust tail. The dust tail is made out of small dust particles that have evaporated from the nucleus and have been pushed away from it by the pressure of the sunlight. The dust tail is the easiest part of the comet to see as it can get several million kilometers long, and it will always face away from the sun.

Comets can often have two tails. One is the dust tail we just spoke about, and another is the ion tail which is often also called plasma or gas tail. The ion tail is made up of electrically charged gas molecules, that are pushed away from the nucleus by the solar winds.

As I was getting ready for this post and was researching more about comets I really learned a few new things and I hope that you did as well.

I hope you’ve had a chance to see the Tsuchinshan ATLAS comet if not I bet it won’t be the last comet that we will be able to see with our naked eye. I just saw there is a comet forecasted for the end of November, it is visible via large binoculars or a small telescope. The name of the comet is 333P/linear if you like to look into it and maybe get ready to see it in the sky.

 Now remember I am not a professional, just someone who enjoys space. Please always do your own research as well 😊

Sources NASA Earth Observatory, How Stuff Works