An astronomer has described the best time for Kiwis to catch a glimpse of a comet that hasn’t been seen in our orbit for 80,000 years.
Comet C/2023 A3 is currently visible with the naked eye in the morning sky in Australia and New Zealand, with its best yet to come in the next few weeks.
Astronomer Ian Griffin told Breakfast the comet was “amazing” because it had been outside our solar system for about 80,000 years.
“The comet was visible in the morning sky over New Zealand over the last few weeks, but it’s just gone really close to the sun which has melted a lot of the comet and created a huge tail.
He said the comet “should be visible to the naked eye” over the next week and the prime time to view the comet was after the sun sets in the evening.
“Over the next week or so, it’s going to appear in our evening sky after sunset and, hopefully if it keeps going, it’s going to be a magnificent sight.
“Find yourself a place with a good view to the west, watch the sunset and just to the right of the sun you might see the comet tail.”
“[It] should be visible with a naked eye, certainly visible with binoculars and it’s one to look out for.”
He said the comet would be passing at its closest point to Earth on Sunday morning.
“It will be about 45 million kilometres away, so its going to be nowhere near us basically, it’s not going to hit the earth or anything.
“It’s slowly going away now and it will move off for the next tens of thousands of years now… this comet is really travelling a vast swathe through our solar system.”
He said the nucleus was “quite small”, but it was one of the first times it had been in the inner parts of the solar system.
“Certainly something to look out for over the next few nights and certainly, next few weeks.”
