A newly discovered comet met its demise all through a dangerously shut encounter with the Photo voltaic, breaking apart into chunks and destroying any hope of being observed for Halloween.
NASA and the European Home Firm’s Photograph voltaic and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) observed Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) as a result of it made its closest methodology to the Photo voltaic on Monday. The affectionately nicknamed Halloween Comet’s closing moments have been captured by SOHO as a result of it raced within the route of the star and violently disintegrated into smaller fragments.
Wheeeeee! ☄️
ESA/NASA’s Photo voltaic-watching SOHO spacecraft spied comet C/2024 S1 ATLAS (coming into from bottom correct) as a result of it darted in direction of the Photo voltaic.
The comet reached its perihelion, or closest methodology of the Photo voltaic, proper this second at 7:30am ET. pic.twitter.com/T7kvthWOPe
— NASA Photo voltaic & Home (@NASASun) October 28, 2024
“This comet was doable already a rubble pile by the purpose it entered SOHO’s topic of view,” Karl Battams, principal investigator for the LASCO instrument suite on SOHO and lead for NASA’s Sungrazer Enterprise, is quoted as saying on X.
It’s disappointing data for sky watchers who had hoped to see the comet streak all through the skies this week, merely in time for the spooky trip. Nonetheless, the comet’s grotesque demise does keep as a lot as its nickname.
The Hawaii-based ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Ultimate Alert System) survey first observed the comet on September 27, and it shortly gained notoriety for its potential to put on a spectacular show in the night skies. Astronomers believed that the comet could possibly be seen to the unaided eye as a result of it approaches perihelion, or its closest distance to the Photo voltaic, at 7:30 a.m. ET on October 28.
All through its closest methodology to the Photo voltaic, Comet C/2024 S1 bought right here as shut as 1% of the hole between Earth and the Photo voltaic. Sadly, the comet didn’t survive its encounter with the star, failing to level out off its sensible tail to us Earthlings. Really, it was already doomed sooner than it purchased there. “Over the previous couple of days, it has broken into chunks as a result of it approached the Photo voltaic,” NASA wrote on X.
Nonetheless, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinan-Atlas), a comet originating from the Oort Cloud that was discovered by China’s Tsuchinshan Observatory in January 2023, survived its private perihelion on September 27, and was seen throughout the skies to the unaided eye. This comet, however, solely bought right here a few third of the hole between Earth and the Photo voltaic, in accordance with NASA.
Comet C/2024 S1 belongs to a gaggle of comets usually referred to as Kreutz sungrazers, named for his or her attribute shut methodology to the Photo voltaic at perihelion. Astronomer Heinrich Kreutz was the first to notice that the group of comets share comparable orbits, coming inside a very shut distance to the Photo voltaic. The Kreutz sungrazers doable all bought right here from an infinite comet that broke apart years previously, and they also all are normally on the smaller side. That’s why all through their shut methodology to the Photo voltaic, the sungrazers each totally disintegrate or crash into the star. Some lucky comets, however, do survive the shut encounter.
Most famously, Comet Lovejoy, present in 2011, survived its perihelion and emitted a singular blue and inexperienced glow that lit up the night skies. Sadly, that didn’t closing for very prolonged as a result of the comet’s nucleus disintegrated just a few days after its encounter with the Photo voltaic. In 1965, comet Ikeya-Seki was discovered by two novice astronomers from Japan. The comet moreover survived its rendezvous with the Photo voltaic, and reached a brightness magnitude of -11, or virtually as sensible as a half-Moon, and have turn out to be seen to the unaided eye.
If it had survived its shut methodology to the Photo voltaic, the Halloween Comet would have reached a brightness magnitude of -7. That’s brighter than Venus, the brightest planet throughout the photograph voltaic system, which has a magnitude of -4.6. We missed out on an excellent current, nevertheless the comet will nonetheless go down in historic previous as a spooky legend.
