STUNNED astronomers have spotted a new comet out in space – and it this could be a pretty special one.
There’s a chance it’ll be visible with the naked eye in just a few weeks from now.
Our solar system is teeming with comets, which are frozen remnants from its formation 4.6billion years ago.
As they’re pretty small many go unnoticed as they whizz through space.
But every so often special exceptions decide to reveal themselves.
The last visible comet was C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) in October 2025 but you needed binoculars to be able to see it.
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Catching them with the naked eye clearly is a lot rarer – the last major one to capture the world’s attention was in October 2024 with C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS).
Now there might just be another you’ll be able to see with the naked eye coming in April, called C/2026 A1 (MAPS).
It was noticed by a team of four amateur astronomers that go by the name of MAPS (Maury, Attard, Parrott, Signoret).
What’s remarkable here is the comet is heading on an very long orbit around the Sun and is set to come within only 191,000km of the Sun’s surface.
If – and a big if – it manages to survive that journey, C/2026 A1 (MAPS) may be visible with the naked eye not only in the night sky but possibly daytime as well.
“Our latest discovery is this new comet which could eventually become bright enough to perhaps be visible to the naked eye by April 2026,” the group said.
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Scientists are particularly excited about this comet as there’s reason to believe it may belong to a famed family of comets, the Kreutz group.
These comets come from a single, huge parent comet that broke into thousands of pieces more than 2,000 years ago.
They tend to follow a dramatic path getting very close to the Sun, which is why experts call them sungrazers.
And over the years there have been many major sightings from the Kreutz group that were extraordinarily bright.
The most notable was dubbed the Great March Comet of 1843.
Astronomers have caught this latest comet – C/2026 A1 (MAPS) – the farthest from the Sun than any previous newly discovered sungrazer.
This new record could mean that the comet they’re seeing is pretty large.
“Our discovery certainly has a good chance of becoming quite bright, but it’s difficult to know for sure,” the group warned.
“If the orbital elements are sufficiently aligned, it could be quite bright (visible to the naked eye?) towards the end of March, at dusk, except… the moon will be visible.
“We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
What’s the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
