Photos show comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS hovering over the USA

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, a rare, unique comet visible every 80,000 years, was spotted in various states across the United States over the weekend.

This weekend is “one of the better times to spot it” because “it's out of the bright sunlight,” Shannon Schmoll, director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University, told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network .

“The comet was visible primarily to people in the Southern Hemisphere and the tropics until about October 8,” NASA said in a statement. “Viewers in the northern hemisphere would have more opportunities to take a look in the following days.”

NASA said the comet is expected to pass an estimated 44 million miles from Earth on Saturday, October 12. The comet could reportedly be seen with the naked eye, but as Schmoll told the newspaper, viewers would need binoculars later in the month.

“It should also be visible through the rest of October, but the further it moves, the higher in the night sky but further from the sun, so less bright,” the expert said.

The comet passed closest to the sun at the end of September.

The now-appearing comet gets its name from those who first discovered it last year, the Tsuchinshan or “Purple Mountain” observatory in China and the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System) telescope in South Africa, the Detroit Free Press reported .

Some sightings have been reported in California, Virginia and New Hampshire.

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Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected].

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