Astronomers have discovered an exciting new "sungrazing" comet that will have a perilously close encounter with our home star in less than two months. Some experts predict the hefty ice ball could become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye, even in daylight — but only if the comet survives its deadly solar slingshot.
The newfound comet, dubbed C/2026 A1 (MAPS), was discovered Jan. 13 by a team of French astronomers at the AMACS1 Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. It is likely around 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide and, when it was first spotted, was just over twice as far from the sun as Earth is, according to Sky & Telescope magazine.
