WASHINGTON — Comet ATLAS, also known as C/2019 Y4, is growing brighter at a surprising rate as it hurtles toward the Sun. <br /><br />Space.com reports that as of March 17, the newly discovered comet's magnitude, a measure of its brightness, was +8.5, 600 times brighter than forecasts. It may well become the brightest comet in years.<br /><br />Comets are made of dust, frozen water, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide. <br /><br />Citing Karl Battams of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Space Weather Archive reports ATLAS is shedding huge amounts of gas and it may yet disintegrate before reaching the Sun.<br /><br />The comet ATLAS is named after the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, a pair of observatories in Hawaii that first discovered the comet on Dec. 18, 2019.<br /><br />Space Weather Archive reports ATLAS began heating up two months before reaching the Perihelion, or the nearest approach to the Sun. <br /><br />Should it withstand the sun's heat, the comet will loop inside Mercury's orbit and become visible to the naked eye on Earth in April.
