Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? 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. It was an 18th-magnitude object, meaning it was exceedingly faint and far beyond the reach of most amateur telescopes.…