A rare comet can be seen only after 160,000 years

The comet was discovered last year by NASA’s Asteroid Impact Alert System.

Dr. Shyam Balaji, a researcher in astroparticle physics and cosmology at King’s College London, said that “current orbital calculations suggest that it will pass about 8.3 million miles from the Sun,” which would classify it as a “solar skirt” comet.

The university described the comet as a once-in-160,000-year event.

Dr. Balaji said opportunities to detect the comet may arise “in the days around perihelion, depending on local conditions and the behavior of the comet.”

“As with all comets, its appearance and brightness can be unpredictable,” he added.

Mr. Balaji said people living in the southern hemisphere, where the comet is predicted to be best seen, “should look to the eastern horizon before sunrise and try the western horizon after sunset after perihelion.”

But Mr Balaji added that while it was expected to be “fairly bright”, comet brightness predictions are “notoriously uncertain” and many end up dimmer than originally predicted.

For the Northern Hemisphere – including the UK – viewing the comet relative to the Sun can be difficult.

you can check with BBC Weather online to see if the sky is clear enough to make your presence seem possible.