Incredible moment a fireball comet is spotted racing past stunning aurora towards Earth
ASTRONAUTS aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have captured the ‘once in a lifetime’ Comet A3 zooming through breathtaking Aurora.
Matthew Dominick and Dom Pettit, who are both avid astro-photographers, spotted the space rock before it was visible to the naked eye by using orbital geometry and math.
“It is totally awesome to see a comet from orbit,” Pettit wrote in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
“The perspective of rising through the atmosphere on edge is truly unique from our vantage point.
“The comet tail is still too dim to see with your eyes, but it is heading towards the sun and growing brighter every day.”
Comet C/2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be visible from Earth between 27 September and 2 October.
The space rock comes from the Oort Cloud, a giant shell around our solar system that hosts millions of comets and other icy pieces of debris.
It is characterised by the long, two-pronged tail of dust and ice that follows it, which experts say will be illuminated white and blue by the sun.
It’s this tail that also makes it more visible to stargazers on Earth during its peak brightness.
An amateur astronomer told Pettit that the comet would be about 20 degrees ahead of the sun from the perspective of the ISS around 22 September, before it became fully visible.
Dominick explained: “We needed photos to be taken when we were on the dark side of the Earth because the comet is still very dim.
“We have software on the ISS that tells us when orbital sunrise will occur.
“So we did a simple estimate to figure out when and where to point the cameras.
“You can imagine how we felt when it appeared. Math works!”
Comet A3 is currently moving towards the sun and will disappear tomorrow, before reappearing again on 12 October.
And after that date, it won’t fly by Earth again for another 80,000 years.
Auroras – how do they work?
Here's the official explanation from Nasa...
- The dancing lights of the auroras provide spectacular views on the ground, but also capture the imagination of scientists who study incoming energy and particles from the sun
- Auroras are one effect of such energetic particles, which can speed out from the sun both in a steady stream called the solar wind and due to giant eruptions known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs
- After a trip toward Earth that can last two to three days, the solar particles and magnetic fields cause the release of particles already trapped near Earth, which in turn trigger reactions in the upper atmosphere in which oxygen and nitrogen molecules release photons of light
- The result: the Northern and Southern lights.
Bolide flash
In early September, Dominick caught a giant white and green flash on camera, in the sky above the Mediterranean Sea.
The footage, available above, shows a split-second white and green explosion, completely dwarfing any nearby lightning strikes.
At the time, Dominick, who launched to the orbital outpost in March, sought advice from friends who said the blast was a meteor burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Dominick wrote in a post on X: “I showed this to a couple of friends yesterday to see what they thought.
“They both thought it was a meteor exploding in the atmosphere – a rather bright one called a bolide.
“Timelapse is slowed down to one frame per second for you to see it streaking and then exploding.”
Bolide explosions are rare, and happen very quickly.
What's the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
Here's what you need to know, according to Nasa...
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vaporizing)