Broken Comet Atlas Is Lighting Up Night Sky, Leaving A Brilliant Trail Behind
Comet Atlas as it is known had earlier been anticipated to become bright enough to be visible by the naked eye as it neared Earth. New images have now been able to capture this out-worldlyphenomenon but it is not developing as per the common expectations.
A comet hurtling towards the Earth has captured the attention of Astronomers in the recent weeks. Comet Atlas, as it is known, had earlier been anticipated to become bright enough to be visible by the naked eye as it neared Earth.
New images have now been able to capture this out-worldly phenomenon but it is not developing as per the common expectations.
Though the initial predictions suggested to spot the Comet Atlas as a brightly visible comet passing the Earth, Comet Atlas started breaking up into pieces and getting less bright as it approached our planet.
So what was to be the brightest comet of 2020 luminous enough to be seen by the naked eye as it approached its closest point to Earth in May, was in fact disintegrated on its path. A series of images have been able to capture this breakdown by astronomers from across the globe. You can check out some of them in the tweets below.
Comet ATLAS Breaks Up ~ Image Credit & Copyright: Milen Minev (Bulgarian Inst. of Astronomy and NAO Rozhen), Velimir Popov, Emil Ivanov (Irida Observatory) pic.twitter.com/nammV3tz6p
¡ª David Crook (@StellarInsights) April 16, 2020
Disintegrated comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) imaged on April 10 through 1.4m f/5.1 telescope at Astronomical Station Vidojevica, AOB, Serbia.
¡ª Igor Smoli? (@pseudotrabant) April 12, 2020
5 fragments/condesations are clearly visible.
Exposition 60x60s, R filter. #CometAtlasY4 pic.twitter.com/B5ysRVKPPQ
Good news! Comet Atlas C/2019 Y4 is coming back. Image from last night, april 14 UT 21.15. Michael J?ger pic.twitter.com/aBWxq08XFb
¡ª Con Stoitsis (@vivstoitsis) April 14, 2020
The images clearly show the comet getting dimmer and dimmer as it broke into little pieces. Multiple parts of this fragmented object can be seen in an image clicked by astronomers in Bulgaria.
Interestingly, Comet Atlas is still moving on its trajectory towards Earth. With an orbit similar to that of the Great Comet of 1844, it is believed that the two might be fragments of the same comet that disintegrated at some point in time.
These new images of the Comet Atlas are a great way for astronomers to study the object. Not much is known about the Comet Atlas till now, having been discovered on December 28, 2019 by the ATLAS survey. The comet began to disintegrate around April 2, 2020 and continues to fade to date.
