{"id":620393,"date":"2026-04-21T01:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620393\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T01:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T01:53:09","slug":"comet-to-delight-new-zealand-stargazers-if-it-survives-close-encounter-with-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/620393\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet to delight New Zealand stargazers, if it survives close encounter with the sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

The website earthsky.org reports that R3 will be at its closest to Earth on April 26, when it will be just 72.3 million km away (about half the distance to the sun).<\/p>\n

However, it will be easier to spot at the end of the month, appearing low on the western horizon just after sunset. <\/p>\n

In May, the comet gets higher into the sky after dusk, and, therefore, easier to spot.<\/p>\n

Aoraki says that R3\u2019s close encounter with the sun could also bring about its demise, as it heats up and melts, breaking into fragments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it survives its encounter with the sun, there is a chance that it will be visible in the evening sky near the end of the month (and) into May,\u201d Aoraki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it will likely not be visible to the naked eye and will require telescopes or binoculars to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The website earthsky.org reports that R3 will be at its closest to Earth on April 26, when it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[32465,3204,64,63,57655,15452,10474,5393,300842,9403,30169,90399,5587,300845,71949,1467,3127,307,59134,1462,128,7128,285,300843,133,300844,4220,320,19004,319,80595,14802,14850,3605,3205],"class_list":{"0":"post-620393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-month","9":"tag-around","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-chance","13":"tag-close","14":"tag-comet","15":"tag-could","16":"tag-delight","17":"tag-edges","18":"tag-encounter","19":"tag-extraterrestrial","20":"tag-from","21":"tag-hurtles","22":"tag-if","23":"tag-it","24":"tag-new","25":"tag-outer","26":"tag-passing","27":"tag-planet","28":"tag-science","29":"tag-solar","30":"tag-space","31":"tag-stargazers","32":"tag-sun","33":"tag-survives","34":"tag-system","35":"tag-the","36":"tag-this","37":"tag-to","38":"tag-visible","39":"tag-visitor","40":"tag-week","41":"tag-with","42":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}