Hey, Space Pacers!
Comet ATLAS on Oct. 19th. Credit: Michael Jaeger (Farm Tivoli, Namibia)
A HEADLESS COMET FOR HALLOWEEN? Headless comets are a real thing, and we might see one this weekend. Comet ATLAS (C/2024 S1) is falling toward the sun for a close encounter on Oct. 28th. Astronomers monitoring the comet say it is fluctuating in brightness by +/- 2 magnitudes--a sign that its core is breaking apart.
"The comet has almost certainly disintegrated," says Qicheng Zhang of the Lowell Observatory. "There's probably not much left of its primary core."
In other words, the comet may be all tail and no head. We'll find out soon. Comet ATLAS will enter the field of view of SOHO coronagraphs on Oct. 26th (1400 UT), and it could put on a good show for the spacecraft's cameras.
"The comet could become fairly bright in the SOHO coronagraphs," says Zhang, who predicts a magnitude of +2 during the hours before perihelion (closest approach to the sun) on Oct. 28th.
No one can say for sure what will happen next. The comet's debris field may well contain dark fragments made of rock. Those fragments are not disintegrating now, but they might on Oct. 28th when the comet is only 0.008 AU from the sun. Fragments larger than ~100 meters would provide enough raw material for a bright tail that swings around the sun and becomes visible in the night sky after perihelion--a "headless comet" for Halloween! Stay tuned.
In other words, the comet may be all tail and no head. We'll find out soon. Comet ATLAS will enter the field of view of SOHO coronagraphs on Oct. 26th (1400 UT), and it could put on a good show for the spacecraft's cameras.
"The comet could become fairly bright in the SOHO coronagraphs," says Zhang, who predicts a magnitude of +2 during the hours before perihelion (closest approach to the sun) on Oct. 28th.
No one can say for sure what will happen next. The comet's debris field may well contain dark fragments made of rock. Those fragments are not disintegrating now, but they might on Oct. 28th when the comet is only 0.008 AU from the sun. Fragments larger than ~100 meters would provide enough raw material for a bright tail that swings around the sun and becomes visible in the night sky after perihelion--a "headless comet" for Halloween! Stay tuned.
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I will be monitoring the comet and will let you know how it progresses.
Sky Guy in VA
