Comet ATLAS - The Ups and Downs

avatar
(Edited)

15x120sec-1200px.jpg
Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) remotely imaged on March 26, 2020, from Mayhill, New Mexico. Image Credit: The author

About a 3 months ago I wrote about a newly discovered comet, Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), found by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) team using a 0.5m telescope on top of Mauna Loa in Hawaii. This is a followup post on the comet. Note although I will refer to this comet, as Comet ATLAS from this point in, the proper name includes C/2019 Y4 so as to differentiate it from the other comet's also named ATLAS.

The new comet did show some promise of becoming visible to the naked eye. In fact the general media picked up on this at the time, although it was quickly hyped with some unrealistic predictions (like the comet becoming brighter than the planet Venus) but that's another story! As it turned out Comet ATLAS failed to become bright, but still managed to entertain us by undergoing multiple fragmentation's before finally disintegrating altogether in mid-May, 2020.

This final fate was perhaps not too surprising as Comet ATLAS itself appears to be the product of a fragmentation event from an ancient comet several thousand years ago. We believe this to be the case as it shares an almost identical orbit to a bright comet that appeared in late 1844 . To demonstrate how similar the orbits have a look at the plot in the following diagram, with the 1844 trajectory shown as red, and the 2020 comet trajectory shown in green.

2020-orbit-anotated-800px.jpg
The orbits of the 2020 and 1844 Comets plotted together in 3D. Large version here . Credit: Author, generated in Blender 2.80

Through March, April and May I used the iTelescope facility at Mayhill, New Mexico, to remotely acquire images of Comet ATLAS. The following article is a chronology of my observations during that time.

Development in March 2020

Much of the initial excitement around Comet ATLAS came about during February and March, when it appeared to brighten rapidly. I documented this rapid brightening rate in images here where the increase in the comet's brightness is readily evident from March 1st to 16th. Careful photometric measurements indicated a brightening of 5 fold over that time period.

March1-16-composite-annot-800px.jpg
Brightness development of comet is clearly visible in the sequence of images from March 1 to 16. Image Credit: Author

However, following observations after March 16, seem to indicate little if any brightening when a steady increase was expected. This was the first indication there may be a problem with the comet.

Nucleus Breaks apart April 2020

The first direct evidence of Comet ATLAS starting to disintegrate came in early April. This can be seen in the following 2 images I acquired a couple of weeks apart using the same telescope and exposure settings (10 minutes each). The main point to note is the morphology of the central part of the comet has changed from a round object to a highly elongated streak. Other important changes include a change of color from green to a more yellowish hue, as well as general loss of brightness. Careful examination of the second image shows mottling within the elongated area. These changes all indicate a loss of emission from the comet, as well as a fragmentation event of the comets nucleus - now estimated to be just a couple of 100m in diameter (see reference 3 below).

March26-April16-composite-annot-800px-web.jpg
Big changes in the comet's morphology from March 26 to April 15, indicated the comet was fragmenting. Image Credit: Author

The above images were made with an 0.28m telescope, however, I was able to get some time on larger 0.5 and 0.6m aperture telescopes to have a closer look at the central area. Here are some of those images, with commentary. As an approximation the scale is around 150,000km wide for all these following images.

Clear indications of comet fragmentation were visible on April 10 and 11 with up to 4 or 5 pieces near the limit of resolution. Here is the image from April 11, 2020.

apr11.jpg
April 11, 2020. Comet C/2019 Y4. 13 x 180seconds exposure using T11 teelscope at Mayhill, New Mexico

A few days later there appeared to be just 2 main fragments as evidenced by the following 2 images. In reality there were lots of smaller fragments not seen here, but clearly visible in Hubble images taken around the same time.
apr16.jpg

apr17.jpg
This image is a collaboration between myself and James Willinghan showing a possible 3rd fragment well downstream of the primary nucleii

apr20.jpg

By April 28, there appeared to be just one main nucleus as can be seen here (although there were hints of other nuclei in deeper images).

apr28.jpg

In the early part of May, the comet mostly a weak primary nucleus, but this suddenly began brightening after May 5/6 which is evident in these following images. Sadly, the elevation of the comet had got too low in the sky for the telescopes to reach so I was not able to follow what appears to be a final fragmentation event leading to the demise of what was the primary nucleus.
May6.jpg

May9.jpg

A different view on May 9, showed a forward (pointing toward the sun) debris field. Over the coming days there was considerable development in this area (but as mentioned I could not get images because of the low position in the sky. So what is next for the comet? Nobody really knows for sure, but it has likely met it's end in the last few days.

May9-2.jpg

Further Reading

  1. Hubble Watches Comet ATLAS disintegrate into more than two dozen pieces.

  2. Spaceweather Site showing spectacular amateur images from May 16 - a week after I last imaged the comet

  3. Observations of Disintegrating Long-Period Comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) -- A Sibling of C/1844 Y1 (Great Comet)



0
0
0.000
25 comments
avatar

Congratulations @terrylovejoy! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

You published more than 100 posts. Your next target is to reach 150 posts.

You can view your badges on your board and compare to others on the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

Do not miss the last post from @hivebuzz:

The Hive Gamification Proposal
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
0
0
0.000
avatar

Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!

Please consider supporting our funding proposal, approving our witness (@stem.witness) or delegating to the @steemstem account (for some ROI).

Please consider using the STEMsocial app app and including @stemsocial as a beneficiary to get a stronger support. 
 

0
0
0.000
avatar

@terrylovejoy thanks for sharing this. Is the remote images acquired free of charge or paid for?

0
0
0.000
avatar

@johnolusegun the images were acquired using itelescope.net so it is paid service and not exactly cheap. At least it seems expensive until you look at the cost of owning the equipment (as well as the cost of locating that equipment on top of a mountain in a dark sky) !

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was kind of bummed that it did not become visible naked eye wise, and now we have to much light in Alaska to get good night time shots of the sky. Alaska is not a great place for astrophotography, very limited dark, and semi decent temperatures.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I was a bit bummed too, I was looking forward to seeing something bright just after perihelion. Oh well! Alaska is a great place for photographing Aurora though :)

0
0
0.000
avatar

It has been two years since I even got to see the Aurora, two mostly cloudy winters, I should move further north, but the further north you go the colder it gets. Still we have some great critters and lakes and scenery to take pictures of.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Alaska is on the absolute top of the list of places to visit. Was thinking sometime around April or October, to get the best chance at Aurora spotting as well as a decent amount of daylight. Any recommendations?

0
0
0.000
avatar

Very late March t mid April a good time for pictures if it is not so cold. The last two years, at least on the Kenai Peninsula, winter has held off til November but snows can start in Early to mid October. The April time frame I think would be best, because if the winter hangs a little longer at least it will improving weather not deteriorating weather of October/November time frame.

0
0
0.000
avatar

This is really great to have you back, with those amazing shots of the ATLAS comet! I was discussing this object with @astrophoto.kevin recently (which makes sense as this is the time to observe it). I hope you will stay around and provide us many more pictures! ^^

0
0
0.000
avatar

It's good to be back, now in Hive-land. I do have plans to post some pictures on another comet (Comet SWAN) that I got some images of which developed a really nice plasma/ion tail.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I am looking forward to see them! Once again welcome back!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Great read Terry and awesome images 😊
It was really fun to get on this comet, even with all the tracking issues and weather problems 😂
Unfortunately, it is/was no more visible for me for a while now because it was hiding behind the roof.
Thank you for bringing us the story of Comet ATLAS 😊

0
0
0.000
avatar

I had the same issue with the remote observatories not wanting to go to the lower altitudes (so a lot of my pictures were made in bright twilight). Comet SWAN coverage is planned soon.

0
0
0.000
avatar

I saw some impressive images of Comet SWAN on the web. Unfortunately, I have to skip it. I think it will not be in my field of view and I have started to maintain my mount. Hopefully, I will have it build up again this weekend. At the moment it looks like this
4ae6edc6.jpg
I'm just waiting to get a tool delivered to remove the old needle bearings from the DEC an RA housings.

I'm already very curious about your Comet SWAN post and images 😊

0
0
0.000
avatar

That does not look like fun!

0
0
0.000
avatar

Well, I have to say that it was very interesting to see how a mount is built. The only thing that wasn't fun, was to find all this sloppy work which I find unjustified in a mount of this price range.
But it moves now very smooth when moving by hand. Unfortunately, the weather don't let me do any guiding tests.

0
0
0.000