An eye-catching celestial event is around the corner. Comet C/2023 A3, known as the Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will make an appearance in the skies this fall.
The newly discovered comet is projected to pass near the Earth, offering stargazers a chance to see a comet that has travelled millions of years in orbit to reach us.
Here is how you can observe the comet:
The comet could shine as brightly as the planet Venus in the coming weeks and give Canadian viewers a fair shot at spotting the comet, according to Paul Delaney, a professor emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at York University.
鈥淚n and around October 15,16, 17, where in evening twilight, so when the sun has set and the sky is getting somewhat darker, that鈥檚 going to be our first opportunity to see it, if it is, in fact this bright,鈥 Delaney said in an interview with CTVNews.ca Monday.
鈥淎s October stretches on, it will get more visible in darker skies,鈥 he said, while adding that the further away from the sun, the comet鈥檚 brightness is expected to drop.
For those on the southern hemisphere, including those living in countries like Australia and New Zealand, Delaney said the comet was a little further out and therefore fainter.
Delaney said September 11 or 12 was when visibility peaked for those south of the equator and because it will swing in and get closer to the sun at the end of September, they are not well placed for looking at this comet.
Comets like C/2023 A3 are 鈥渂ig, dusty ice balls,鈥 and when they start coming in close to the sun, they heat up and begin to discharge gasses and dust and that鈥檚 what create comet tails, Delaney said.
But he warned that comets are mostly 鈥渦npredictable鈥 and this would be 鈥渢he first time we鈥檝e seen this comet.鈥
While some astronomers claim this will be the brightest comet in recent years, even calling it the 鈥渃omet of the century,鈥 Delaney warned that such claims have been made about previous comets that haven鈥檛 lived up to expectations.
According to Delaney, the comet originated from the Oort cloud and has taken millions of years to get to us here.
In response to concerns of the comet鈥檚 disintegration, Delaney said 鈥渋f it was going to fall apart, it probably would have done it by now,鈥 adding that it鈥檚 still a possibility.
Comets that get close to the sun get broken up because of tidal forces and if it鈥檚 not solid. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know its characteristics, it could well be pulled apart by the gravitational forces of the sun as it swings through perihelion at the end of September.鈥
Delaney said they are still trying to assess whether it鈥檚 next move will be to return to the Oort cloud or escape the solar system after its visit to the northern hemisphere.
鈥淭he closer we get to the middle of October, we will be able to predict with increasing certainty how bright this [comet] will be, assuming it survives passage wit the sun and perihelion,鈥 Delaney said.
For the best experience of the comet, stargazers should ensure a clear, unobstructed view and choose a location away from city lights.
鈥淭he darker the sky you can observe from the better,鈥 Delaney advised. 鈥淚f you can drive half an hour outside of the city to a friend鈥檚 place that鈥檚 darker that will improve the quality of the view.鈥
鈥淚f our predictions are in fact correct, even city lights are not going to dim [the comet],鈥 Delaney said.
He said that it will be harder to see the comet鈥檚 tail the brighter light pollution is, and if you鈥檙e stuck in the city, find the darkest spot in your backyard or local park.
While the comet may be visible to the naked eye, a pair of binoculars or a small telescope will help enhance the view.
The Conservatives' first shot at toppling the Liberal government is likely doomed to fail, after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Fran莽ois Blanchet told reporters his MPs will vote confidence in the government.
The federal government will be further limiting the number of international students permitted to enter Canada next year. It's the government's latest immigration-related measure to address Canadians' ongoing housing and affordability concerns.
Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that at least 20 people were killed and 450 others wounded by exploding electronic devices in multiple regions of the country. The explosions came a day after an apparent Israeli attack targeting pagers used by Hezbollah killed at least 12 and wounded nearly 3,000.
With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
A Saskatchewan organization is breaking ground as the first to commercially produce rare earth metals in North America.
Jeremy Dutcher made Canadian music history Tuesday night by winning a second Polaris Music Prize for his second album, Motewolonuwok.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.
A B.C couple has been ordered to stop living in a motorhome on the property where their under-construction home 鈥 which they were first given a permit to build more than six years ago 鈥 has become an 鈥渆yesore,鈥 according to a recent court decision.
A Manitoba man is warning others after he fell victim to an elaborate online scam over the summer.
Court documents filed in the case of a Pakistani man arrested in Quebec for an alleged plot to kill Jews in New York City reveal the RCMP didn't have enough evidence to hold him in Canada.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled in Winnipeg a new toonie, which began circulating Wednesday, highlighting the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new sexual assault charge on Wednesday, nearly five months after the disgraced Hollywood movie mogul's earlier sex crimes conviction in New York was overturned.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
A longtime CIA officer who drugged, photographed and sexually assaulted more than two dozen women in postings around the world was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday.
Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La'Quetta, the city's superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment and other charges for allegedly beating their teenage daughter on numerous occasions, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Iranian hackers sought to interest U.S. President Joe Biden's campaign in information stolen from rival Donald Trump's campaign, the FBI and other federal agencies said Wednesday.
Elon Musk is using his social media platform to promote misinformation about the U.S. presidential candidates in the lead up to the November election, amplifying false claims Wednesday about a Trump rally bomb threat and immigrants eating pets in Ohio.
The Conservatives' first shot at toppling the Liberal government is likely doomed to fail, after Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Fran莽ois Blanchet told reporters his MPs will vote confidence in the government.
Two Liberal ministers are accusing Conservatives of lending their support to protesters who harassed Jagmeet Singh, among others, outside of Parliament Hill this week.
New federal legislation introduced Wednesday aims to give Jasper full authority over local land planning and development rather than Parks Canada.
Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
The group representing Canada's physicians has formally apologized for the harm medical professionals caused to Indigenous Peoples, saying it is 'deeply ashamed' and 'owning its history' of racism, neglect and abuse.
With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
Elon Musk is using his social media platform to promote misinformation about the U.S. presidential candidates in the lead up to the November election, amplifying false claims Wednesday about a Trump rally bomb threat and immigrants eating pets in Ohio.
A Saskatchewan organization is breaking ground as the first to commercially produce rare earth metals in North America.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
Jeremy Dutcher made Canadian music history Tuesday night by winning a second Polaris Music Prize for his second album, Motewolonuwok.
MrBeast is accused of creating 'unsafe' employment conditions, including sexual harassment, and misrepresenting contestants' odds at winning his new Amazon reality show's US$5 million grand prize in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by five unnamed participants.
Lawyers for Sean "Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.
Low entry-level pay in the tentative deal between Air Canada and its pilots could be a stumbling block ahead of a union vote on the agreement, some aviators and experts say.
Some Brazilian users reconnected with X on Wednesday despite the Supreme Court's recent nationwide ban, the result of the social network apparently changing the way its servers are accessed. The reunion may be short-lived, however.
A report led by the Canada Research Chair in Urban Governance says restrictions on short-term rentals in British Columbia have reduced rents by 5.7 per cent, saving tenants more than $600 million last year
Buying a historic cruise ship he found on Craigslist back in 2008 was undoubtedly a life-altering decision for Chris Willson. In October 2023, Willson made the painful decision to sell the vessel, which began sinking around seven months later. Now its future looks bleak.
Two lucky people in Ontario and Quebec will split Tuesday鈥檚 record-breaking $80-million Lotto Max jackpot.
Michelin has awarded a star to four new restaurants in its Toronto guide 鈥 but three of them aren't in the city at all.
Matthew Tkachuk estimated that he tells a story about Johnny Gaudreau's exploits, both the on-ice and off-ice variety, to somebody at least once a week.
Las Vegas Aces superstar A鈥檍a Wilson and Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark both broke WNBA records Sunday, with Wilson becoming the first player to score 1,000 points in a single season and Clark breaking the rookie scoring record.
Vancouver Canucks forward Dakota Joshua revealed Tuesday he underwent cancer treatment over the summer, and will not be ready to play when the team's training camp begins later this week.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
The plant was expected to produce batteries for a million electric vehicles a year. Once up and running, it was supposed to create hundreds of permanent jobs in a small southeastern Ontario municipality. But two years later, spending on the construction of the Umicore plant has been delayed in what the company calls a "significant worsening of the EV market context."
A Winnipeg man is asking for help after a classic car that has been a part of his family since the 1950s was stolen from his garage.
An ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey named Goliath is missing from its longtime home at a veterinary hospital south of Calgary.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.
David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.
A daytrip to the backcountry turned into a frightening experience for a Vancouver couple this weekend.
If you take a look to the right of Hilda Duddridge鈥檚 100th birthday cake, you鈥檒l see a sculpture of a smiling girl extending her arms forward.
Two sisters have finally been reunited with a plane their father built 90 years ago, that is also considered an important part of Canadian aviation history.
A new report from the Hospital Employees Union details how B.C. led among provinces in protecting long-term care residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
The theft of an e-bike customized for a girl with complex health needs while her father was picking her up from school was caught on camera in Surrey, according to authorities.
Two people are dead following an early-morning shooting at a park in a quiet neighbourhood in Keswick, York Regional Police say. Police confirmed just before 11 a.m. that they were investigating a double homicide at Bayview Park. YRP said they responded to the sounds of gunshots at the park just before 7:30 a.m.
Rogers Communications Inc. is buying out Bell's 37.5 per cent share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7 billion, giving it 75 per cent ownership of the sports conglomerate.
Video of a brazen daylight auto theft which shows a suspect running over a victim in a stolen luxury SUV has been released by police west of Toronto.
A heavy police presence could be seen at a property in the southeast Calgary community of Valleyfield on Wednesday.
A Calgary man has been charged with sexual assault and sexual interference in relation to an incident with a 12-year-old child that took place in the southeast Calgary community of Walden.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
A search is underway in the Ottawa River for a 30-year-old woman reported missing while kayaking near Pembroke, Ont.
Photographs of eyeglasses with an apparent broken arm, a purse with a "severed" strap and a reusable bag filled with groceries at the bottom of a staircase were among those shown to the jury at the first-degree murder trial of Hamid Ayoub Wednesday morning.
Dark Fork has announced plans to open the city's first "dine-in-the-dark restaurant" on George Street, where patrons will eat in a dark dining room where cellphones and other sources of artificial light are forbidden.
A 29-year-old Quebec woman is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of a five-year-old boy southwest of Montreal.
Thanks to a generous donation, the Montreal Children鈥檚 Hospital will now be able to double the number of cancer trials it offers to young patients.
For the first time in nine months, Christian Boivin and his family say they're encouraged that Montreal police arrested four people suspected of selling the kind of drugs that killed their 15 year-old son, Mathis Boivin, last year.
A 52-year-old man is facing sexual assault charges in connection with the assault of a teen boy.
Police say a fire in a southwest Edmonton neighbourhood early this morning is "suspicious."
A man wanted in connection with the death of his partner has been arrested.
New Brunswick鈥檚 Green Party has officially launched its fall campaign, on the eve of a provincial election call.
Transport Canada has ordered a bankrupt tidal power company and a bankruptcy trustee to produce a plan to remove four huge moorings abandoned in the water near Walton, N.S.
A Woods Harbour, N.S., man is facing dozens of charges after police seized weapons and drugs from South Shore homes last Friday.
A Manitoba man is warning others after he fell victim to an elaborate online scam over the summer.
More than $300,000 worth of stolen vehicles were seized from a Winnipeg compound earlier this month, police announced Wednesday.
The City of Winnipeg is moving toward a new and improved 911 system, but a plan to pay for it has hit a snag.
Regina Executive Committee has passed the purchase of a new building for a low-barrier homeless shelter in Regina.
A tornado warning is in place for parts of southeast Saskatchewan on Wednesday evening.
An ongoing investigation into drug trafficking has resulted in the seizure of cocaine in Yorkton, according to RCMP.
Police are hoping the public can help them locate three missing people from Kitchener.
The federal government is reducing its 2025 international student study permits by another 10 per cent from the 2024 target.
Residents in Blair say they鈥檙e concerned with the potential noise and traffic that will come with the newest Amazon fulfilment centre set to open this month.
A 14-year-old student who allegedly set her classmate on fire is facing a new charge.
May 9, 2022 was the day Blayne McKay thought he was going to die. He called his wife to say goodbye, after getting electrocuted at the SaskPower Island Falls Hydroelectric Station, about 100 kilometres northwest of Flin Flon.
There鈥檚 more fallout on the proposed shelter in downtown Saskatoon. This time, it's from Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC) Tribal Chief Mark Arcand who says, the province should be putting more funding into existing shelters like the one in Fairhaven.
Some Greater Sudbury Police officers will wear body-worn cameras as part of a pilot project beginning in 2025.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
A detour is now available after Highway 101 closed in both directions between Foleyet and Highway 144, police said Wednesday.
The mother and brother of an 18-year-old who was shot and killed during a teen field party more than three years ago gave emotional victim impact statements on Wednesday.
Around 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 10, OPP, EMS, and local fire services were called to the scene of a two-vehicle collision on Egremont Road in Warwick Township.
A volunteer service providing crucial support to cancer patients in London is desperately seeking drivers. Wheels of Hope provides rides to and from doctor and hospital appointments.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Check your lottery tickets because someone who purchased a ticket in Grey County is an overnight multi-millionaire, having won half of the historic lottery jackpot.
York Regional Police say two people are dead after a shooting at a park in the community of Keswick.
People who live and work along Tecumseh Road East say they are frustrated by months-long construction that has blocked portions of the sidewalk and kept customers away from businesses.
The Jack Miner Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Kingsville has been given clearance to study ducks and geese with use of GPS transmitter technology.
A new after-school program aims to put the power of drawing in the hands of kids in Windsor鈥檚 west-end.
British Columbia's police oversight agency says there are no grounds for criminal charges against four Mounties after a man's arm was broken during an arrest on Vancouver Island.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix says minimum nurse-to-patient ratios meant to improve care and strengthen the health-care system have now been established for most hospital settings.
Animal protection officers in British Columbia have rescued three pit bulls 鈥 including one that gave birth to 10 puppies 鈥 from a rat-infested home in Kelowna.
More than a year after a missing Kamloops, B.C., woman鈥檚 body was found, her son has been arrested and charged with her murder, Mounties announced Friday.
A woman suffered life-threatening injuries after being stabbed during a home invasion in Kelowna, according to authorities.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
The City of Lethbridge's encampment response team continues to see a rise in the number of people experiencing homelessness throughout the summer months.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
A 50-year-old man in the Sault has been charged following an assault on Saturday that involved the use of a hammer.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester鈥檚 farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop.聽Read about us.
