The newly discovered comet is scheduled to pass Earth in October, by which time it will be as bright as Venus in the night sky and may even be visible to the naked eye.
The comet, named Tschingshan Atlas, travels between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and can currently only be seen with a telescope. According to Forbes.
But this year’s candidate comet is getting brighter and longer, meaning that by the time it passes by in the fall, the long-period comet, which orbits every 80,000 years, could jut out as much into the night sky as Earth’s neighbor, Venus.
Still, it’s impossible to know exactly how shiny this collection of rock, ice and gas will be, Forbes said.
According to the media, it may be difficult to track in the Northern Hemisphere because it will be low on the horizon, but the best chance of spotting it will be on October 10 when it is closest to the sun.
It is best seen when it crosses the southwestern sky just after sunset.
The comet, which comes from the Oort Cloud, a group of comets that orbit our solar system, was discovered in February by astronomers from the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in South Africa and the Tuzishan Observatory in China, according to Forbes.
