Amateur Astronomers Discover New Comet, Outperforming NASA

The comet, initially identified as 6AC4721 and now set to be officially named “MAPS” after its discoverers, could be visible to the naked eye by late March, ahead of its closest approach to the Sun around 4 April. The discovery was made by four independent astronomers working under the MAPS programme, whose observations have been validated by the Minor Planet Center. The group detected the comet around 300 million kilometres from the Sun — earlier than any similar “sun-grazing” comet previously observed. Using just four privately funded telescopes in Chile and advanced tracking software, the team says its system proved more flexible than large institutional programmes. “We did better than NASA,” one member joked. Astronomers stress the comet poses no danger to Earth. It belongs to the Kreutz family of sun-grazing comets and is expected either to disintegrate or collide with the Sun, potentially putting on a spectacular display for observers in the weeks ahead.