Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)

The Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS)

This photograph was taken at dusk on October 13th, from Saishiteng Mountain in Lenghu, Qinghai Province, China, at an altitude of 4,200 meters. The Wide Field Survey Telescope (WFST) is visible on the left, while Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) appears on the right. Comet C/2023 A3 was co-discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory and the ATLAS survey. The WFST, a time-domain survey telescope, was built by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. With a 2.5-meter aperture and a 3-degree field of view, it is situated at Saishiteng Mountain, a newly identified prime observatory site on the Eurasian continent (Deng et al., 2021, Nature).

The WFST is expected to discover more comets and asteroids within the solar system as it begins formal survey. Additionally, it aims to make significant advancements in time-domain astronomy, mapping the Milky Way and satellite galaxies in the Local Group, and contributing to our understanding of galaxy formation and cosmology (Wang et al., 2023, SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy).