long-period comet
Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS
The bright comet of autumn 2024, which graced evening skies with a long tail and a rare sunward-pointing anti-tail.
- Distance from Earth today
- 1.40 billion km9.328 AU · light: 1 h 18 min
- Distance from the Sun today
- 1.32 billion km8.834 AU
- As of
- 2 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Perihelion
- 0.391 AU
- Orbital period
- none – open (hyperbolic) orbit
- Orbital eccentricity
- 1.000
- Orbital inclination
- 139.1°
- Perihelion passage
- 27 September 2024
- Minimum orbit distance from Earth’s orbit (MOID)
- 0.275 AU (41.15 million km)
Source of the figures: JPL Small-Body Database (public domain).
Discovery: 2023 – Purple Mountain Observatory (Tsuchinshan) and the ATLAS survey
Description
Tsuchinshan–ATLAS was first detected in January 2023 at China's Purple Mountain Observatory, whose traditional name Tsuchinshan appears in the comet's designation, and independently a few weeks later by the ATLAS survey. After passing the Sun in late September 2024, it became a striking naked-eye comet in October evening skies. Besides a long dust tail, it displayed a prominent anti-tail – a thin spike that appears to point toward the Sun because of the viewing angle of dust spread along its orbit. It came from the distant outer Solar System and is now leaving on a path that may never bring it back.