On 27 December last year, astronomers using the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile discovered a small asteroid moving away from Earth. Follow up observations have revealed that the asteroid, 2024 YR4, is on a path that might lead to a collision with our planet on 22 December 2032. In other words, the newly-discovered space rock poses a significant impact threat to our planet. It sounds like something from a bad Hollywood movie. But in reality, there’s no need to panic – this is just another day living on a target in a celestial shooting gallery. So what’s the story? What…
Author: Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
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Hot on the heels of a spectacular comet late last year, another celestial visitor is set to put on a show. And Southern Hemisphere observers have a ringside seat. Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has just experienced a very close encounter with the Sun, and will become visible low in the western sky after sunset in the coming days. With luck, it will prove to be a spectacular sight. It is often said that comets are like cats – their behaviour is notoriously hard to predict. So while astronomers have been awaiting the arrival of C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) for several months,…
In January 2023, a new comet was discovered. Comets are found regularly, but astronomers quickly realised this one, called C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS), had the potential to be quite bright. Some hyperbolic reports have suggested it might be the “comet of the century”, but any astronomer will tell you the brightness of comets is notoriously hard to predict. As I explained last year, we’d have to wait until it arrived to be sure how bright it would become. Now, the time has come. Comet C/2023 A3 is currently visible with the naked eye in the morning sky in Australia and Aotearoa…