Earth may be about to pass through the ion tail of a comet

Earth is about to have a close encounter with a comet, possibly passing through its ion tail – a rare occurrence. If we are lucky, it could show up as a blue streak in the northern hemisphere night sky.

Samuel Grant at University College London and Geraint Jones at the European Space Agency say there is a good chance that tonight, 10 October, our planet will intersect the path of the ion tail of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). “It’s a particularly unusual situation,” says…