Yes the article says so, but I really don't believe that it's correct. The comet will at its closest be around 60,000,000 km away from the earth, that is more than 150 times further away than the moon, and almost halfway to the sun.

What could possibly make the comet, which is very, very small compared to the moon, be that bright? I think the journalist have misunderstood the calculation or maybe read ~16 (approximately, which has been the current magnitude) as -16.

From nasa.gov: "In the best case, the comet is big, bright, and skirts the sun next November. It would be extremely bright -- negative magnitudes maybe -- and naked-eye visible for observers in the Northern Hemisphere for at least a couple of months."

If NASA says it _might_ reach negative magnitudes, I'm pretty sure the -16 is wrong.