How to see Comet A3 in UK before it vanishes for another 80,000 years
Stargazers around the world were treated to a celestial feast as the ‘comet of the century’ whizzed across the northern hemisphere.
Astronomers captured spectacular images of Comet A3, or Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, as it passed about 44 million miles from Earth on Saturday night.
Photos taken in the US and UK show the comet on its journey through our inner solar system. It’s thought it was last seen by Neanderthals more than 80,000 years ago.
But don’t panic if you missed the show. Experts say the comet can be seen until October 30 with binoculars — or even with the naked eye.
The comet comes from the Oort Cloud, a giant spherical shell that surrounds our solar system and contains billions of objects including comets.
Dr Robert Massey from the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) said it’s possible to take photos of the comet on a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera.
The news comes just days after the UK was treated to a stunning display of the Northern Lights with the natural phenomenon visible as far south as London and Kent.
Stunning pictures captured the aurora borealis across the UK as it filled the sky with pink and green hues.
The Northern Lights, most closely associated with the Arctic and other countries closer to the poles, are visible further south at the moment thanks to a geomagnetic storm raging in the atmosphere.
Plus, it was a clear and cloudless night for many, making it even easier to spot the aurora borealis.
Two solar flares erupted from the sun last week, and it’s thought the Earth ‘clipped the edge’ of the two flares, creating the geomagnetic storm which signals the arrival of the Northern Lights.
This latest arrival of the aurora was caused by a fast coronal mass ejection – also known as a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field – which left the sun on Wednesday, causing severe geomagnetic storms.
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