If you’ve ever wanted to see a comet flying through the sky, you might finally get your chance this coming April. If the newly-discovered MAPS Comet survives its trip near the sun, we may have an Easter comet on our hands, according to Space.com. Officials named the MAPS comet after Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott, and Florian Signoret, who run a near-Earth asteroid search program. When the researchers discovered the comet, it was an incredible 191 million miles from Earth. Each day it gets closer and closer, and we get a better chance of seeing it ourselves.
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The MAPS Comet Will Be Closest in Early April
On April 4, the comet will be just 99,000 from the solar photovoltaic. Because it will pass by the sun’s corona, where temperatures reach close to 2 million degrees, the MAPS Comet might not survive, Space.com reports. The MAPS Comet belongs to the Kreutz sungrazer family, which is among the most unpredictable in the solar system.
Excitement about the MAPS Comet continues to grow on social media, with stargazers getting very excited for April.
“The projected lightcurve of Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) is insane… Perihelion is April 3rd, it is possible this becomes the greatest comet of the 21st century, who knows!” Stefan Burns shared on X.
“I believe it’s predicted, at its lightest and assuming it isn’t destroyed by the sun, to be 3X greater than the light of the moon,” someone commented.
“That’s lit! Could be comparable to the famous big 1843 daylight comet Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, observed and painted in Cape Town,” another person shared.
Some could not believe what this MAPS Comet could become and really hope to see the predictions come true.
“Wow ! That’s insane numbers,” a comment reads.
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