Once-in-160,000-year comet as bright as Venus set to light up UK sky

Eyes on the sky!

It follows on from the once-in-a-lifetime comet that flew by Earth last October, providing humans on earth with a spatial time capsule last seen by our Neanderthal ancestors 80,000 years ago.

Those with good memories will of course remember it as comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan–ATLAS, or A3 for short which flew past Earth at about 44 million miles away which, for reference, is quite close when you consider Mars is 38.6 million miles from Earth at its closest point.

Now we've got a new once-in-a-lifetime comet with the catchy name Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) and its predicted to be as bright as Venus in the night sky.

The comet is set to pass extremely close to the sun, just 8.3 miles away, and on the same day is predicted to reach its closest point to Earth.

With an expected radiation magnitude of -4.5, its brightness is predicted to be as bright as Venus at -4.53.

From 13 January, the comet will be at its most visible, with best viewing in the Southern Hemisphere, as it appears in the Sagittarius constellation.

However, do not lose hope, as in the days that follow the comet will likely become visible in the Northern Hemisphere too, for everyone to enjoy.

As reported by Sky & Telescope, those in the Northern Hemisphere will have to look towards the horizon in the southwestern sky between 15 January and 18 January to catch a bright glimpse of this space spectacle.

Because C/2024 G3 has an orbit of 160,000 years, seeing this bit of space ice is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event, so if you get the chance, try and catch it in the sky!

A comet is a large ball of frozen gas, rock and dust that orbits the sun.

Meanwhile meteors come from debris that is shed from comets that then hit the earth’s atmosphere expulsing bright streaks of light as the friction burns up the particles high in the sky.

A meteor is a meteoroid that burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere while a meteorite is a meteoroid that reaches the Earth’s surface.

Meteoroids are typically 2mm to 1m in size while an asteroid is anything larger.

Comets have bright burning tails because as they get closer to the sun, its heat vaporises some of its ice and dust releasing gases that are pushed away by solar radiation and wind forming tails that can reach up to hundreds of kilometres long.