Naked Eye Comets? October May Yield a Bounty

Comets are small objects in our solar system made of ice and dust. As they get closer to the Sun in their orbits, the ices turn into gas and give off a glow that can be seen in telescopes. With luck, that glow brightens to the point where a comet can be seen with the unaided eye. Some, like Halley's Comet, return on a regular schedule. Others are more one and done, breaking apart as they near the Sun or getting a gravity assist to leave our solar system. And every year, astronomers hope for the "comet of the century" -- a rare but visible comet that provides a show with a glorious coma and tail. This October, the observing community hopes that not just one but TWO recently discovered comets will put on that show. This week, Beth Johnson is joined by Dr. Ariel Graykowski, the Cometary Activity Lead for the SETI Institute and Unistellar citizen science project, to chat about the search for comets and the hope that either Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS or C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) will soon be visible to the unaided eye. Learn more about our citizen science program: https://science.unistellar.com/comets/ #citizenscience #comet #comets #cometa3 #comets1 #space #science #unistellar If you like science, support the SETI Institute! We're a non-profit research institution whose focus is understanding the nature and origins of life in the universe. Donate here: https://seti.org/donate Learn more about the SETI Institute and stay up-to-date on awesome science: - Subscribe to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/SETIInstitute/ - Watch our streams over on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/setiinstitute - Listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science [http://www.bigpicturescience.org](http://www.bigpicturescience.org/)/ - Subscribe to our newsletter https://seti.org/signup - Buy merchandise from Chop Shop https://www.chopshopstore.com/collections/seti-institute/SETI Don't forget to like and subscribe! Ring the bell for notifications of when we go live.