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There has been plenty of controversy over GM crops, but if deployed well they could have a positive environmental impact, says Graham Lawton

Feedback explores the painstaking science of hair-pulling, and learns that experts have discovered that its effects can range from "hot-burning" to "aching"

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If we want to preserve the dwindling ice in the Arctic, cutting our emissions is no longer enough – we also need to use geoengineering to refreeze this precious ecosystem

Now is the time to catch Comet A3-Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at dawn.

The window is now open. If skies are clear, set your alarm heading into this weekend to see Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS at dawn. We’re already seeing great views of the comet this week from southern observers and astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The visibility window is now even creeping up to the southern tier latitudes of the contiguous United States (CONUS). If fortune favors us, the comet could hit an easy naked eye magnitude +2 by next week, and forward scattering could even boost this into negative magnitudes… the rare term ‘daytime comet’ is even getting kicked around a bit in cometwatching circles.

But the span to see this comet will be brief indeed. For most northern hemisphere observers, the comet will be a bashful one, never reaching much more than 10 degrees above the eastern horizon about 45 minutes before sunrise on the week centered around September 29th.

Exposures of Comet A3 against the brightening dawn. Credit: Chris Schur The Story of Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Thus Far

We wrote about prospects for this comet for Universe Today previously just last month. China’s Tsuchinshan (Purple Mountain) observatory and the automated ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial impact Last Alert System) survey discovered the comet on January 9th, 2023. I’ve seen the name abbreviated to simply ‘Comet A3’ or ‘Comet T-ATLAS’ in discussions on keystroke-conservative social media.

Likely a first-time visitor to the inner solar system from the distant Oort Cloud, the comet is on an orbit measured in millions of years. This may also be the one and only appearance of the comet in the inner solar system. That’s a good thing, in terms of dynamics and activity, as the comet may have never experienced the heat of the inner solar system in the past. The comet could well head towards permanent ejection from the solar system after perihelion.

Key dates coming right up include when the comet reaches perihelion this coming Friday on September 27th at 0.391 Astronomical Units (AU, 36.4 million miles or 58.6 million kilometers) from the Sun, just interior to Mercury’s aphelion point. The comet then makes its closest Earth approach on October 12th, at 0.556 AU distant.

Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS will become more difficult to catch after October 7th, as it heads in to the Solar Heliospheric Observatory’s (SOHO) LASCO C3 field of view and approaches less than 15 degrees elongation from the Sun. The comet makes a second evening reappearance mid-month, which will most likely be less than favorable as it heads away from us and back out of the inner solar system. We could, however, see something interesting in late October (if the comet survives perihelion) as the tail precedes ahead of the outbound comet.

Chris Schur caught the comet from Payson, Arizona (with a narrow 10 minute window!) on the morning of September 23rd. Credit: Chris Schur. How the Comet is Performing Now

The comet seemed to be headed towards the long rolls of ‘great comets that weren’t’ this past summer, as it stalled at +10th magnitude. Now, the trend seems to have shifted, as the comet is over-performing versus expectations. As of writing this, the comet stands at +3rd magnitude and is rapidly brightening.

We’re already seeing signs of two tails (one dust and one ion) forming in this week’s images of the comet. Forward scattering may help boost the visibility of the comet next week, as all those dust particles reach a maximum illumination angle as seen from our Earthly vantage point in early October. The comet’s orbit passes edge-on from our vantage point on October 14th. The comet will seem to hang stationary low in the dawn next week, as it loops towards us, and then crosses between the Earth and the Sun.

Comet T-ATLAS as imaged from Tivoli Farm, Namibia on September 22nd (note the fan of the comet’s second tail off to the left). Credit: Gerald Rhemann. How to See the Comet

The October apparition will be a tricky one for sure. A good strategy is to use binoculars and start sweeping low to the eastern horizon about an hour before local sunrise. The +1st magnitude star Regulus (Alpha Leonis) will make a good ‘guide star’ to find the comet. The star will be about an outstretched hand’s width to the observer’s lower right. The comet pairs with the slim waning crescent Moon on the morning of September 30th, making for a grand photo-op. That same Moon is headed towards an annular solar eclipse on October 2nd.

The view on the morning of September 30th. Credit: Starry Night Edu Software.

Clouded out? We feel your frustration here in eastern Tennessee, as clouds from approaching hurricane Helene move inland this coming weekend. Astronomer Gianluca Masi will also carry the comet live on the evening of October 9th.

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS from September 24th. Credit: The Virtual Telescope Project.

“It (Comet T-ATLAS) survived and so far, it looks brighter than expected.” Astrophotographer Eliot Herman told Universe Today. “I still don’t think it will be amazing when it can be seen when dark enough… I am thinking maybe March 2013 Comet (C/2011 L4) PanSTARRS level – which was visible to the eye and pretty nice with a camera.”

We can only hope for a bright comet as depicted by astronomer Charles Piazzi Smyth’s painting of the Great Daytime Comet of 1843:

Smyth’s painting, at the Greenwich Maritime Museum. Credit: Dave Dickinson. The Comet From the ISS

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station already caught the comet from their vantage point in low Earth orbit this week. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick produced this fine animation:

Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is teasing us with the recent memories of two other dawn comets. Remember P1 McNaught in 2006-2007 and W3 Lovejoy in 2011-2012? Both beat the odds, and went on to become fine comets, ahead of expectations.

Comet McNaught imaged from Villa Alemana, Chile in January 2007. Credit: Garcia Ruben/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain.

As always with comets, a caveat is in order: several factors will conspire against your cometary quest. First: as noted, the comet will appear very low to the horizon. This means it will fight against the thick murk of the atmosphere and the brightening twilight sky. Secondly, comets are intrinsically dark objects, with a low surface brightness or albedo… remember Rosetta’s views of Comet 67P Churumov-Gerasimenko? Lastly, like deep sky objects, all of that precious magnitude gets dispersed over an apparent surface area. This makes a +2 magnitude comet much fainter looking versus a +2nd magnitude star. During F3 NEOWISE’s 2020 apparition, I could juuuust start to convince myself that it was naked eye when it reached around +1st magnitude.

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is finally here ! ???I captured this image this morning at 09:22 UTC from @LCOAstro in Atacama desert in Chile ?? The view was absolutely spectacular ! The clouds were constantly moving just above the horizon, but we got really lucky when the… pic.twitter.com/AoClHkatFr

— Yuri Beletsky (@YBeletsky) September 24, 2024

NEOWISE… or Nishimura?

We had two recent comets perform very similar to Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. In 2020, Comet F3 NEOWISE became a fine naked eye comet at dawn, wowing early morning observers. On the flip side, 2023’s Comet P1 Nishimura flirted with naked eye brightness, but never really became a general crowd pleaser.

Clear skies on your hunt this coming week, to see what’s most likely to be the best comet of 2024.

The post Will Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS Shine Brighter Than Expected? appeared first on Universe Today.

Manganese is earth-abundant and cheap. A new process could help make it a contender to replace nickel and cobalt in batteries.

A new article notes that journal articles reporting how well machine learning models solve certain kinds of equations are often overly optimistic. The researchers suggest two rules for reporting results and systemic changes to encourage clarity and accuracy in reporting.

New AI model identifies possible therapies from existing medicines for thousands of diseases, including rare ones with no current treatments. The AI tool generates new insights on its own, applies them to conditions it was not trained for, and offers explanations for its predictions. AI can expedite the development of more precise treatments with fewer side effects at far lower cost than traditional drug discovery.

Researchers examined Neptunian exoplanets -- these planets share similar characteristics to our own Neptune, but orbit outside of our solar system. Scientists discovered a new area called the 'Neptunian Ridge' -- in between the 'Neptunian desert' and the 'Neptunian Savannah'. A new 'map' of distant planets shows a ridge of planets in deep space, separating a desert of planets from a more populated savannah.

Augmented reality (AR) takes digital images and superimposes them onto real-world views. But AR is more than a new way to play video games; it could transform surgery and self-driving cars. To make the technology easier to integrate into common personal devices, researchers report how to combine two optical technologies into a single, high-resolution AR display. In an eyeglasses prototype, the researchers enhanced image quality with a computer algorithm that removed distortions.

Augmented reality (AR) takes digital images and superimposes them onto real-world views. But AR is more than a new way to play video games; it could transform surgery and self-driving cars. To make the technology easier to integrate into common personal devices, researchers report how to combine two optical technologies into a single, high-resolution AR display. In an eyeglasses prototype, the researchers enhanced image quality with a computer algorithm that removed distortions.

Researchers have discovered a new way to help liquid flow in only one direction, but without using the flaps that engines and our circulatory system rely upon to prevent fluid backup. The team created a flexible pipe with an interior helical structure inspired by the anatomy of shark intestines -- creating a prototype inspired by biology but with applications in engineering and medicine.

The discovery of a 'weird' and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could 'help us understand how the cosmic story began', astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found approximately one billion years after the Big Bang and stood out because it has an odd, never-before-seen light signature -- indicating that its gas is outshining its stars. The 'totally new phenomena' is significant, researchers say, because it could be the missing-link phase of galactic evolution between the Universe's first stars and familiar, well-established galaxies.

The discovery of a stable single-electron covalent bond between two carbon atoms validates a century-old theory.

Researchers have discovered that mutations affect protein stability following remarkably simple rules. The discovery has profound implications for accelerating the development of new treatments for diseases or the design of new proteins with industrial applications.

Researchers have introduced an algorithm based on deep learning that can predict the effects of rare genetic variants. The method allows persons with high risk of disease to be distinguished more precisely and facilitates the identification of genes that are involved in the development of diseases.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a versatile technique in the biomedical field, but its application to the study of plant metabolism in vivo remains challenging. A research team reports the establishment of chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) for plant MRI. This method enables noninvasive access to the metabolism of sugars and amino acids in complex sink organs (seeds, fruits, taproots, and tubers) of major crops (maize, barley, pea, potato, sugar beet, and sugarcane).

Tree ring data reveals the impact a fluctuating jet stream has had on Europe for 700 years – and sheds light on future risks amid our warming planet

Though it was first predicted in the 1930s, chemists have just now managed to create a covalent bond that only uses one electron