Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) has generated so much excitement about how bright and visible it might be that it has even been billed as the "comet of the century" in some quarters.

Although that is "not very likely," according to the Royal Astronomical Society's Dr. Robert Massey, there is still a chance it could be visible with the naked eye, or at the very least with binoculars.

"We're all really excited about the prospect of the Comet A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) and how it might just be a nice bright object in the night sky," he said in a video explainer about the comet.

"I would think that you're going to need a pair of binoculars to pick it out, or a telescope if you have the right kind of telescope with a wide field and you know exactly where to look.

"But who knows, it might be visible to the naked eye as well. We'll just have to wait and see."

The comet, which was discovered in January 2023 and named after the two observatories that independently spotted it, visits the inner solar system roughly every 80,000 years. This means it would last have been visible from Earth when the Neanderthals were walking the planet.