Given the on going pandemic, if this was to get bright enought to be seen with the naked eye (unaided by optical instrument), it will surely be of an apocalyptic vibe! By Stephen Luntz IFLScieince In Medieval times comets were thought to foretell plagues, wars, and the deaths of kings, so a pandemic should be just the time for one to show up. These days we know comets are dirty snowballs leftover from the material that formed the Solar System and not related to terrestrial events, but it seems we are getting a particularly unusual one anyway, and it may put on a quite spectacular show. The inner Solar System is visited by dozens of comets each year, but most are so faint it takes a telescope to see them. When C/2019 Y4 ATLAS was discovered back in December (coincidentally around the time news of the new coronavirus reached beyond Wuhan) it looked to be just another of these. ATLAS's brightness was anticipated to peak around magnitude 9, some 40 times too faint to see with the naked