If the sight of the supermoon delighted you beyond imagination, this will have a similar effect. A bright comet is approaching earth and you can witness it with your naked eye in late April and early May. By Kumar Shree
The ATLAS Project, an astronomical survey based in Hawaii first detected this comet, which has also been named Comet ATLAS. Out of the many comets identified by the ATLAS Project, this new one is also called C/2019 Y4. The comet that is only visible through telescopes and high-power binoculars at present is speculated to brighten up by late April–early May. If so happens, it would become visible to the naked eye and we would be able to see it from the earth.
View this post on Instagram
“[In a telescope] or slightly high-powered binoculars, you could pick it out. It’s a little tougher in binoculars, though. I’ve heard some people are having a little bit of trouble in smaller binoculars,” Henry Weiland, systems engineer for the ATLAS observatory, told Thrillist, an online media website.
Scientists are also drawing Comet ATLAS’s similarities with the Great Comet of 1844, as ATLAS had “an orbital period very, very similar to” the former. If that is true, be assured that sight of Comet ATLAS will be truly extraordinary and special.
Space.com, space and astronomy news website note that the Comet ATLAS would match, if not beat, planet Venus and/or full moon in terms of brilliance, when it reaches perihelion, it’s the closest point to the sun.
View this post on Instagram
Having said that, scientists are also claiming that this is too early for such speculations and we will only know what happens as and when it happens in real-time. There have been earlier instances, in case of Comet ISON, where it was supposed to get as bright as a full moon, but it got so close to the sun that it vanished in the blink of an eye.
Well, even if the chances are slim, we will surely be looking out for a sight of the Comet ATLAS.
Related: The Earth’s Ozone Layer Shows Improvement Amid Lockdown
