What’s Going On with Comet Atlas? It Seems to have Become a “Comet Within a Comet”

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  A COMET WITHIN A COMET? Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) continues to amaze. First, in March, it was supposed to become as bright as Venus. Then, in April, it fell apart. Now, in May, it seems to have become a “comet within a comet.” New imageS from Michael Jäger of Jauerling, Austria show a mini-comet with a distinct tail inside the larger envelope of ATLAS’s green atmosphere. Clearly, one of the fragments of ATLAS’s crumbling core has sprung a tail of its own, spewing an independent plume of gas and dust within the larger whole. It is moving through space with the comet. What will happen next? Comet ATLAS is plunging toward the sun with a close approach on May 31st inside the orbit of Mercury. Intense solar heating could cause the battered core to fragment further, activating new “internal comets”, or the whole assembly could disintegrate into a haze of dust and gas.

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