Comet ATLAS C2024-G3 | International Space Station

Comet ATLAS C2024-G3 | International Space Station

NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 flight engineer Don Pettit: "It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. ATLAS C2024-G3 is paying us a visit."

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a long-period, sungrazing comet. It will reach perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU from the Sun. It could become the brightest comet of 2025, possibly exceeding an apparent magnitude of −3.5. The comet is visible in the southern hemisphere before and after perihelion. It can only be observed in the daytime sky around perihelion in the northern hemisphere.

The comet was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile.

Expedition 72 Updates:

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/

Expedition 72 Crew

Station Commander: Suni Williams
Roscosmos (Russia) Flight Engineers: Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, Aleksandr Gorbunov
NASA Flight Engineers: Butch Wilmore, Don Pettit, Nick Hague

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada.

Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Release Date: Jan. 11, 2025

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