Discovered in January 2023 by astronomers at China’s Purple Mountain Observatory and later confirmed by South Africa’s ATLAS telescope, comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is a long-period comet originating from the Oort Cloud—a vast sphere surrounding our solar system that contains millions of comets. It ventures into the inner solar system to orbit the sun once every 80,000 years. These photos were taken on the evening of October 15-16, 2024.