The comet can be seen with the naked eye in Portugal today

A comet can be seen with the naked eye on Sunday in Portugal, in a short window of opportunity that opens at 7:35 pm (Lisbon time).

This is comet C/2023 A3 Tuchinshan-ATLAS, which was discovered in January 2023 by telescopes at the Tuchinshan Observatory in China, and confirmed by the ATLAS telescope in South Africa.

Speaking to Lusa, astrophysicist Nuno Peixenho said that if sky observing conditions remain clear, the comet could be seen with the naked eye in Portugal “40 minutes after sunset, looking west, that is, at 7:35 pm.”

According to the researcher from the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, the “window of opportunity” to observe the comet, preferably from a place with little light pollution, is “small,” because after eight o’clock in the evening “it is already very low.” “On the horizon and it will be very difficult to see.”

Nuno Peixenio points out “not to confuse” the comet with the “strong brightness of Venus,” which will be on the horizon to its left.

Today the Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory of the University of Coimbra will promote an observing session between 7:20 pm and 8:00 pm.

On that day, according to Nuno Pexinio, the comet will be approximately 71 million kilometers from the Earth and just over 82 million kilometers from the Sun, when “the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, called the astronomical unit, is about 150.” One million kilometres.

According to the astrophysicist, the comet can still be observed next week, but perhaps only with the help of a telescope, as it loses its brightness daily, as it moves further and further away from the Earth and the Sun.

After passing close to Earth, comet C/2023 A3 Tuchinshan-ATLAS will continue its journey across the boundaries of the solar system, perhaps influenced by the gravity of other planets or stars.

Orbital models indicate that the comet will not approach Earth again for hundreds of thousands of years, if it returns again.

Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas comes from the Oort Cloud, a vast, distant reservoir of icy bodies surrounding the solar system.

Before it was visible in October in the Northern Hemisphere, it was possible to observe the comet at the end of September in the Southern Hemisphere, towards the east of the horizon, at dawn.

By definition, comets are celestial bodies composed of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. As it approaches the Sun, its brightness increases, as the icy materials it is composed of sublimate, generating a diffuse atmosphere around its core, called a coma, and the tail points in the opposite direction to the Sun.