In a rare celestial event, Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has been captured parading across the Sun's vicinity just as our star unleashed a series of powerful coronal mass ejections (CMEs).
The dramatic scene, recorded by the LASCO C3 coronagraph aboard the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft, offers astronomers a unique opportunity to observe multiple cosmic phenomena simultaneously.
The comet, first discovered in January 2023, made its appearance in SOHO's field of view on October 7, 2024.
It entered from the right side of the image as a bright, elongated object, its coma stretching approximately 2,09,214 kilometers and its tail an impressive 28,968,120 kilometers long. This extensive tail has kept the comet visible in SOHO's instruments for several days.
As Tsuchinshan-ATLAS traversed the frame, the Sun put on a spectacular show of its own.
Multiple CMEs were observed erupting from the solar surface, appearing as puffs of smoke-like material racing into space. One particularly powerful X-class flare, the most intense category, was recorded on October 91.
Adding to this cosmic tableau, the planet Mercury made a cameo appearance on the left side of the solar disk, visible as a bright white sphere.
This alignment of celestial bodies and solar activity provides scientists with a wealth of data to study the interactions between comets, planets, and solar phenomena.
The LASCO C3 coronagraph, which blocks out the Sun's bright disk to allow observation of the fainter corona and surrounding space, captured these events in stunning detail.
The imagery shows a confetti-like scattering of white specks across the view, caused by charged solar particles hitting the camera.
