We’re less than a week away from the spookiest day of the year. The leaves are turning colors, pumpkins are popping up everywhere, and soon, little costumed goblins will line the streets. The sky recently gave us quite a show with the gorgeous colors of the Hunter’s Moon. According to experts, we’ll have an equally exciting display leading up to October 31. A headless comet will soar through the air just in time for Halloween. This isn’t a trick, we promise you’re in for a treat.
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A Headless Comet Will Bring Some Extra Sizzle to Halloween.
According to NASA, the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, recently discovered Comet C/2024 SI. If the comet stays there, we may even be able to see it during the daytime.
“However, I want to avoid raising unrealistic expectations. From the information I’ve been able to find so far, I expect that at night this comet will only be visible with binoculars or a telescope, as its path will not bring it very close to the Earth. For the Washington, D.C. area (and similar latitudes) this comet will be above the horizon before morning twilight begins from now to October 21 as the comet falls towards the Sun,” Gordon Johnston explained on the NASA website.
The comet got the nickel and the nickname “Headless Comet” because experts expect it will fizzle out before Halloween. But that doesn’t mean there won’t be a show.
“If it doesn’t break into pieces too small to see around closest approach, it should also be visible (with binoculars or a telescope) from November 2 to December 19 as the comet speeds away from the Sun,” Gordon added.
Gordon also shared an interesting tidbit about Halloween. “We currently divide the year into four seasons based upon the solstices and equinoxes, with winter beginning on the winter solstice in December. This approximates winter as the quarter of the year with the coldest temperatures. Much of pre-Christian northern Europe celebrated ‘cross-quarter days’ halfway between the solstices and equinoxes, and divided the seasons on these days. Using this older definition, winter was the quarter of the year with the shortest daily periods of daylight, with autumn ending and winter beginning on Samhain, traditionally celebrated on October 31st or November 1st (the middle of our fall). Our Halloween customs are thought to have come from these earlier celebrations of fall’s end and winter’s start.”
We love all things Halloween and hope we’ll see the headless comet flash through the sky.
The source of this story’s image can be found here.
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