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    • Rare comet spotted in North Texas skies
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    Rare comet spotted in North Texas skies

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    FORT WORTH, Texas – A once-in-80,000-year comet was spotted in the North Texas sky this weekend.

    Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas passed within 45 million miles of Earth on Saturday and was visible in the United States.

    If you missed the comet, you should be able to see it all month.

    You can look at the western sky every evening after sunset until about October 26, as long as the sky is clear.

    “Comet C/2023 A3 poses no threat to Earth,” said Peter Veres, research scientist at the Minor Planet Center, previously told FOX Weather. “We know the comet’s orbit well. The orbit is improving and more and more astrometric observations are coming to our center – the MPC.”

    North Fort Worth (Source: James Dunn and EllieJo)

    The celestial body was discovered in 2023 by observers from China’s Tsuchinshan Observatory who were conducting routine monitoring.

    Comets are the remnants of the formation of the solar system, which took place about 4.5 billion years ago, and consist of a mixture of ice, dust, rock and gases.

    ‘Some comets do not survive a close encounter with the sun. If they get too close, radiation and gravitational forces can completely disintegrate them. Tsuchinshan-ATLAS did not suffer this fate, but another comet that astronomers were monitoring, C/2024 S1 ATLAS, could. to have,” stated NASA.

    Based on orbit calculations, astronomers believe that once the comet leaves Earth’s view, it could take another 80,000 years before it becomes visible again if it survives its journey around the solar system.

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