College of Sciences

Two weeks ago, a facility owned by BioLab in Conyers, Georgia, outside of Atlanta blew up, sending a huge and rancid cloud miles around. It seems the water used to extinguish the fire reacted with pool chemicals in the plant, which made the cloud more noxious. Sally Ng, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, says a system known as the Atmospheric Science and Chemistry Measurement Network detected a 1,400-times increase in the amount of chlorine-containing particles in the air, and a 170-times increase in the amount of bromine-containing particles in the air over Decatur.

Through the weekend of Saturday, Oct. 19, and Sunday, Oct. 20, you'll be able to see a rare comet in the sky each evening above north Georgia. Comet C/2023 A3, known as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be visible about 30 minutes after sunset and can be seen in the western sky. James Wray, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, discusses his research on the comet and the Oort Cloud.  "The human mind may find it difficult to conceptualize: a cosmic cloud so colossal it surrounds the Sun and eight planets as it extends trillions of miles into deep space," Wray says. "The spherical shell known as the Oort Cloud is, for all practical purposes, invisible."

The Oort Cloud is a theoretical, massive spherical shell surrounding the Sun and planets. Though invisible due to its vast size and faint particles, astronomers infer its existence as it explains the appearance of long-period comets. In The Conversation, James Wray,  professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, discusses his research on the Oort Cloud, along with two comets—Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (Comet C/2023 A3) and C/2024 S1 (ATLAS)—which are expected to be visible this month. 

Related Coverage: Ars Technica