‘Halloween Comet’ may be bright enough to see in daylight for an hour or two tomorrow… – The Sun
A bright green comet is expected to make a close pass by Earth on Halloween night. Known as Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura, it has already brightened significantly since its discovery just three months ago, surprising astronomers.
While many comets fade as they approach the sun, Nishimura has been getting brighter, suggesting it is a surprisingly solid comet. Astronomers believe it could become visible in the daytime for a couple of hours, depending on its behavior.
“This comet is still a mystery to us,” said Thomas Prince, a planetary scientist at Caltech. “It has defied all expectations so far.”
Nishimura was discovered in August by Hideo Nishimura, an amateur astronomer from Japan. The comet is expected to make its closest approach to Earth on Halloween night, when it will be about 34.3 million miles away.
Though the comet is visible now, with a good telescope, it should become brighter, more impressive and appear higher in the sky from tomorrow onwards. Its position means that it can be seen from both hemispheres.
The comet’s “tail” will appear even brighter as it approaches Earth, trailing behind it in its orbit of the Sun. Its unusual green hue is due to diatomic carbon within the comet’s structure that glows under sunlight.
In an article for Sky & Telescope, Tony Cook wrote: “Although the comet is relatively faint in the early evening sky, it should be significantly brighter in a week or two, and there’s a chance that it might even become visible to the naked eye during daytime. “The chance that this one turns out to be particularly good – or the only good naked eye comet of this year, is always fun, though.”
Comets, often referred to as “dirty snowballs”, consist of a mix of ice and rock and are made from leftover debris from the early formation of the solar system, according to Nasa.
Comets release gases and dust particles when they heat up as they approach the Sun, and they may give us some information about the creation of the solar system.
This one, Nishimura, is on an elongated elliptical orbit. According to Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it spends about 200 to 400 years circling the Sun and “will pass by the Earth every several hundred years,”
While Nishimura might be one of the brighter comets this year, a spectacular comet known as C/2023 E3 (ZTF) could be the “big one.”
This comet was initially detected by astronomers from the Zwicky Transient Facility in March, and is expected to be visible with the naked eye in early 2024.
