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From Karl Battams «While ESA NASA SOHO has seen 1000's of Kreutz comets, it's very rare for one to be found a month before perihelion. The last *similar* one was Comet Lovejoy in 2011. (Video here) There are indications that this one is brighter (so *maybe* bigger) than Comet Lovejoy, and its perihelion distance is a tad bigger than Lovejoy's too. So it has a half-decent chance of surviving passing ~half a million kilometers above the solar surface. I'm already seeing folks throwing out wild estimates of crazy bright visual magnitudes. These estimates are not impossible BUT they're far from certain, and full of caveats. Kreutz comets are fickle things, so let's not get ahead of ourselves and stoke the sensationalist fires. FWIW, Lovejoy was estimated to be ~500 meters in diameter. As comets go, that's small. Even if this new one is twice that size, a 1km comet is still average at best. So when you see the inevitable “GIANT COMET ON COLLISION COURSE WITH SUN!“ headlines, please keep this in mind. (And also keep in mind that it's NOT on collision course with the Sun, nor is it going absolutely ANYWHERE near Earth or any other planet. Because some media, will almost certainly spin this for clicks)» . Early heads-up that comet C/2023 A3 *WILL* be crossing through the field of view of our LASCO C3 camera, beginning Oct 7. This graphic from Qicheng Zhang (@aciqra) shows the path it will follow.
