The sky is about to get a little more exciting as a new comet, Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS), is set to put on a dazzling show in the coming weeks. If it survives its fiery brush with the sun, it could become an 'Easter comet' visible in early April. This is an exciting prospect for astronomers and skywatchers alike, as Comet MAPS has already brightened 600-fold since its discovery in January, making it visible in amateur telescopes with 8 to 10-inch apertures.
What makes this potentially exciting is that Comet MAPS has been identified as a Kreutz sungrazer, a group of comets that have produced some of the brightest comets in history. Examples include the Great Comets of 1843 and 1882, and Comet Ikeya-Seki of 1965. The most recent Kreutz comet that put on a fine showing was Comet Lovejoy in December 2011.
Comet MAPS will arrive at its perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, at around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on April 4. At that moment, the comet will pass just 99,000 miles (159,300 km) from the solar photosphere. Since it will be passing through the sun's intensely hot corona, where temperatures can reach about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 million degrees Celsius), there is a possibility that the comet may not survive, likely being either completely consumed by the extreme heat or torn apart by the sun's massive gravitational tidal forces.
However, Comet MAPS is expected to move incredibly fast, whipping around the sun on a hairpin-like curve at a speed of over 1 million miles per hour. This speed is crucial for the comet to escape its predicted path, which does not take it directly into the sun. On its way, the comet will be passing just to the immediate left of the sun, possibly tempting some to try and see it as a speck of light by blocking out the dazzling disk of the sun with their thumb or outstretched hand.
However, there are inherent dangers in attempting to sight a comet so close to the sun. Viewing the comet itself poses no danger, but potential danger lies in staring at the sun, whose infrared rays can burn the retina of the eye and cause irreparable damage, all without causing any pain. It should be emphasized that neither sunglasses, telescopes, nor binoculars will protect against the type of eye damage that could ultimately result in blindness when a person, however briefly, looks directly into the sun's rays.
The safest way to watch the comet's close brush with the sun is to view it on your computer screen courtesy of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). Astronomers hope to get spectacular views of the comet by utilizing SOHO's LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph Experiment) C3 camera and accessing either near-live images or videos that span the past 24 hours.
In October 2024, the public was captivated when SOHO captured Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS sweeping closely past the sun. Since it was launched in 1995, literally thousands of otherwise unknown comets have been first detected in SOHO imagery, generating competition among a handful of armchair astronomers. To date, SOHO officials have reported more than 5,000 comet discoveries using that spacecraft's LASCO C3 imagery.
Comet MAPS will be within range of the LASCO C3 imagery from April 2 at 8:00 a.m. EDT (12:00 GMT) through April 6 at 1:00 a.m. EDT (05:00 UTC). During a roughly four-hour timespan centered on the time of perihelion, the comet will appear to pass behind the sun as seen from our earthly perspective, then rapidly swing around and cross in front of the sun.
In conclusion, Comet MAPS has the potential to become an 'Easter comet' visible in early April, but it must survive its fiery brush with the sun. The safest way to watch this event is to view it on your computer screen courtesy of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). This comet is an exciting prospect for astronomers and skywatchers alike, and it will be fascinating to see how it behaves as it approaches the sun.
