Hey there, future space explorers! 🌟
Amazing news from the Chinese mainland: astronomers have discovered a brand-new comet! How cool is that? Let’s dive into this cosmic adventure together!
Astronomers at the Purple Mountain Observatory, which is a famous observatory in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu Province, spotted the comet on January 5th. The International Astronomical Union (that’s like the big boss of space stuff) confirmed it and named it C/2025 A3 (Tsuchinshan). This is the ninth comet they’ve discovered! 🎉
So, what’s so special about this comet? Well, it orbits between the planets Jupiter and Neptune. If you think about our solar system like a big racetrack, that’s pretty far out there! 🌠
The comet’s closest point to the sun is 5.7 astronomical units (AU). One AU is the distance from Earth to the sun—about 150 million kilometers! 🚀 That means even at its closest, the comet is more than 5 times farther from the sun than we are.
It takes over 33 years for this comet to complete one trip around the sun. That’s older than most of your teachers! 😂
Mark your calendars: the comet will reach its closest point to the sun, called perihelion, in May 2026. But don’t worry, it’s not coming close to Earth. It will stay beyond the orbit of Jupiter.
Isn’t space just awesome? Maybe one day, some of you will discover a comet too! 🌌
Reference(s):
cgtn.com
