Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer
Solar System.
The massive dusty snowball put on
quite a show during its trip near the Sun,
resulting in many impressive pictures from
planet Earth during October.
The
featured image was taken in mid-October and shows a
defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive
anti-tail.
The image captures Comet
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) with
impressively long
dust and
ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun, while the
strong anti-tail --
composed of more massive dust particles --
trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the recently-set
Sun.
In the foreground is village of
Tai di Cadore,
Italy,
with the tremendous
Dolomite Mountains in the background.
Another comet,
C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), once a candidate to
rival Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness,
broke up last week during its close approach to our Sun.