Named after the Chinese observatory and South African programme that detected it in 2023, the ‘comet of the century’ may have formed at a distance of up to 400,000 times that between Earth and the Sun. Its coma, or head, measures about 130,000 miles (209,000km) in diameter, with a tail extending 18m miles (29m km). The comet is not expected to return for another 80,000 years