Rare and bright ... comet to approach Earth in October

A rare and bright comet heading toward Earth from the outer reaches of the solar system will approach Saturday. If the weather is clear, the comet will be visible until the end of October, according to the Associated Press.

Comet Tsuchiyama Atlas is expected to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, but binoculars and telescopes will provide a better view.

“It will be a fuzzy circle with a long tail,” said Sally Brummel, director of the Bell Museum Planetarium in Minnesota, USA.

Comets are frozen remnants of the solar system’s formation billions of years ago, and as they approach the sun they heat up, leaving a streamlined tail of gas and dust.

The comet, also known as C/2023A3, was discovered last year and named after the Chinese and South African observatories that discovered it.