Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) over Observatories in Arizona and Chile

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) over Observatories in Arizona & Chile

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) graced the skies over U.S. National Science Foundation astronomical observatories in Chile and Arizona during September 2024 [no audio].

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the solar system's Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory east of Nanjing, China, on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa on February 22, 2023. ATLAS is funded by NASA's planetary defense office, and developed and operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy. C/2023 A3 passed perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) at a distance of 0.39 AU (58 million km; 36 million miles) on September 27, 2024.

The Oort cloud is theorized to be a vast cloud of icy planetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years). The concept of such a cloud was proposed in 1950 by the Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, in whose honor the idea was named. Oort proposed that the bodies in this cloud replenish and keep constant the number of long-period comets entering the inner Solar System—where they are eventually consumed and destroyed during close approaches to the Sun.

Credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA/ A. Quintana / C. Corco / H. Stockebrand / N. Bartmann (NSF NOIRLab)  
Duration: 50 seconds
Release Date: Oct. 24, 2024

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