Comet Atlas is now in an all-out death dive towards the sun
Comet atlas
Martin Gembec / CC BY-SA 4.0
Fame for a comet is a capricious thing. You shine brightly in one week, you can’t stand the heat the next, and part ways on the way to a deadly encounter with the sun.
Rediscovered in March The comet atlas went through a quick brightening phase and some astronomers hoped that there might be a spectacular show in the night sky when it flew closer in May. Only a few weeks later, however, it became clear that Atlas was likely would not live up to these expectations when it started to break apart
Now amateur astronomers are getting some remarkable images of space snowball falling apart at the seams.
Comet ATLAS
Recorded by Jose de queiroz on April 15th, 2020 @ Falera – Switzerland.
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Comet C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS)
April 15, 2020
Another deep look into the center of the comet. Two different nucleons have formed there that plunge towards the sun like a race. pic.twitter.com/2WbkFOY6Q7– Mizuho Kai (@ Mizuho73700856) April 16, 2020
Decayed comet C / 2019 Y4 (ATLAS), imaged on April 10 through a 1.4 m 1: 5.1 telescope in Vidojevica astronomical station, AOB, Serbia.
5 fragments / conditions are clearly visible.
Exposure 60x60s, R filter. # CometAtlasY4 pic.twitter.com/B5ysRVKPPQ– Igor Smolić (@pseudotrabant) April 12, 2020
Comets are notoriously unpredictable, so it’s not shocking that Atlas is falling apart. It is also somewhat uncertain what will happen next. It could just continue to crumble into smaller and smaller parts until it can no longer be seen, or it could fly directly into the sun and maybe make a last show for us.
Don’t mourn this snowball for too long, but there’s a lot more to see in the night sky: another newly found comet, called SWANis on the rise, as is that Lyrid meteors that will peak next week.
Look at that:
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