Ultra-Rare Comet Lights Up Night Sky

Dexter resident Jim McCargar captures stunning image of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS in rare appearance over the historic depot

Photo: Jim McCargar captured what may well be Earth’s only viewing of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

On Saturday, October 19, 2024, area residents were treated to a stunning celestial display as Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS became visible in the clear night sky.

Retired educator Jim McCargar beautifully captured the once-in-a-lifetime event in a photograph over the historic Dexter Depot. The comet, which made its closest approach to Earth on October 12, could be seen streaking through the stars. Having traveled from the outer reaches of the solar system, the comet has been visible to observers in the Northern Hemisphere, offering a rare autumn spectacle.

According to NASA, as a comet gets closer to the Sun, it heats up, causing the ice on its surface to turn into gas. This process creates a glowing cloud of gas and dust around the comet, called a coma, along with a long tail that can stretch millions of miles. In the photo taken over Dexter, you can clearly see the dust tail of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS pointing toward the top of the frame. A second, fainter tail, called the ion tail, is also visible, stretching in a different direction.

The Sun affects these two tails in different ways. The dust tail is pushed away from the Sun by sunlight, and while it may bend a bit, it generally follows the direction the comet came from. On the other hand, the ion tail is formed when solar wind strips electrically charged particles (ions) from the comet, causing the tail to point in a different direction.

Sometimes, comets don’t survive their trip past the Sun. If they get too close, the Sun’s intense heat and gravitational forces can break them apart. Luckily, Tsuchinshan-ATLAS didn’t suffer that fate, but another comet, C/2024 S1 ATLAS, may have recently broken into pieces. This comet was expected to become visible from Earth in 2025, but new data suggests it might have disintegrated.

Comets like Tsuchinshan-ATLAS are believed to come from the Oort Cloud, a distant region at the edge of our solar system filled with icy objects. Discovered in 2023 by observatories in China and South Africa, the comet was named after both of these institutions. While early estimates suggested Tsuchinshan-ATLAS had an orbit of around 80,000 years, new data as of mid-October 2024 shows that its path may now lead it out of the solar system entirely.