Comets take the name of the discoverer, whether that be a human or an automated telescopic survey that robotically inspects the sky every night. For example, Comet Hale-Bopp is named for Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp, who co-discovered the comet in 1995. Comet PanSTARRS comes from the PanSTARRS survey conducted from Mt.
Haleakala in Hawai'i. Our featured comet is Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. The first of its two names, pronounced Choo-cheen-SHAHN , is a romanized version of the Chinese word for "purple mountain," and refers to the Purple Mountain Observatory in China where it was discovered in January 2023.
At the time, the comet was so faint and star-like in appearance it was reported as an asteroid. No one followed up on the Chinese observation so the "asteroid" was considered lost. But a few weeks later, the ATLAS Project ( Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) nabbed it again and officially put it in the books.
Further study revealed a tiny, compact cloud of dust and gas surrounding the star, which indicated it was a comet. ATLAS is an asteroid impact early warning system with four telescopes stationed in Chile, South Africa and Hawai'i that scan the skies every clear night looking for moving objects. Most new comets are found when they're faint and far away and Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was no exception.
It took about a year for it to brighten enough to see in amateur telescopes. I first spotted the fuzzy fellow on a cold, calm morning in January this year. The comet gradually .