Joy for photographer who saw 'comet of the century'

A rare comet has been snapped hurtling through the night skies over part of the West Midlands.

Joanna Noble, from the Black Country, shared an image of Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) with BBC News, taken at Kinver, in Staffordshire on Saturday night.

The comet was visible for the first time in 80,000 years about two weeks ago, and astronomers said it might be possible to view with the naked eye on Saturday.

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has called it the "comet of the century" because of how bright and visible it can be.

On Saturday, the comet was expected to come within about 70 million km (44 million miles) of Earth, according to the Nasa Earth Observatory.

In a post on X she said: "Well, I can’t feel my fingers, but it was worth it.

"There she is. Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas. Hopefully this isn’t the only chance I’ll get to see her."

She said she took the photograph at about 19:40 BST after going out to see if she could see the comet.

It was first visible in the southern hemisphere between 27 September and 2 October and is visible until 30 October, the RAS said.

The nucleus of the comet - its solid core - has been estimated to be 2km (1.24 miles) in diameter.

Joanna said she had captured other phenomena in the night skies this year including a rocket launch, the northern lights and the milky way.

"What a year it’s been," she posted.

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