NASA Astronauts, SOHO Spacecraft Snap New Images of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS
NASA Space Technology A bright comet from the Oort cloud named C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is passing by Earth and will be visible through the second half of October 2024.This image, taken by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) on October 10, 2024, shows comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and its bright tail streaming from the upper left to the right; Mercury appears as a bright dot on the left. Image credit: ESA / NASA.Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was discovered by astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory in China on January 9, 2023.Otherwise known as C/2023 A3, the comet was independently spotted by ATLAS in South Africa on February 22, 2023.It orbits the Sun on a retrograde orbit, lying at an inclination of 139°.It had its perihelion on September 27, 2024, at a distance of 0.391 AU; the closest approach...