Bright comet ATLAS breaks up as it approaches Earth

13 Apr 2020

image depicting Important element responsible for life on Earth found on a comet

Bright comet ATLAS breaks up as it approaches Earth

Bright comet ATLAS breaks up as it approaches EarthDo you know what a comet is?

A comet is a bright space object with a long tail that travels around the Sun. Comets are basically 'snowballs' made of frozen gases, rock and dust.

This April, we could get to see a very bright comet called ATLAS, which is approaching Earth. However, its brightness will depend on whether it will completely break up before reaching Earth.

What do we know about comet ATLAS?

Also known as comet C/2019 Y4, it was first spotted on 28 December 2019. 
 	Initially, it was not very bright but it got brighter rapidly. In fact, from 28 December 2019 through 17 March 2020, Comet ATLAS became brighter by 27,500 times!
 	However, since then it seems to be getting less brighter, the nearer it gets to us.
 	The comet has been named for ATLAS, a robotic astronomical survey that first spotted it. ATLAS stands for Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System.

Of course, you can also see it now in the night sky using a telescope. But comet ATLAS is hard to see without an instrument because it is so large that its brightness is spread out over a large area, giving it a "ghostly" appearance.

Astronomers think that ATLAS may become faintly visible to the naked eye (without a telescope) by the end of April or beginning of May.

However, comets are extremely hard to predict. So, all we can do is wait and see if it will get brighter or burn out.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1247059988616445952

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