A newly discovered comet is rapidly brightening and could become visible from Earth — if it survives an extreme close encounter with the sun on April 4. (Image credit: ESA / NASA / SOHO. Comet track by Joe Rao, graphic created in Canva Pro.)

A newly discovered comet could put on a dazzling show in the coming weeks and if it survives a fiery brush with the sun, it might even become an 'Easter comet' visible in early April.

Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was discovered photographically on Jan. 13 at the AMACS1 observatory in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, by four French astronomers. The group runs a dedicated near- Earth asteroid search program called MAPS, an acronym based on their last names — Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott, and Florian Signoret.

At the time of its discovery, Comet MAPS was located 191 million miles (308 million kilometers) from the sun , shining in the constellation of Columba the Dove.…