Saying Goodbye to Comet C/2024 G3 ATLA

Saying Goodbye to Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS

What is happening to Comet G3 ATLAS? After passing near the Sun in mid-January 2025, the head of the comet has become dimmer and dimmer. By late January, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) had become a headless wonder—although it continued to show impressive tails after sunset in the skies of Earth's Southern Hemisphere. A key reason is likely that the comet's nucleus of ice and rock, at the head's center, has fragmented. Comet G3 ATLAS passed well inside the orbit of planet Mercury when at its solar closest, a distance that where heat destroys many comets. Some of comet G3 ATLAS' scattering remains will continue to orbit the Sun . . .

C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a non-periodic comet. It reached perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU (13 million km) from the Sun. It is potentially the brightest comet of 2025, with an apparent magnitude reaching −3.8 on the day of its perihelion.

Comet C/2024 G3 was found by the automated Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on April 5, 2024, in images obtained with a 0.5-m reflector telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. ATLAS is funded by NASA's Planetary Defense Office. ATLAS was developed and is operated by the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy.

Learn more:
https://fallingstar.com
https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-defense-overview/

Astrophotographer Ian Inverarity: "Refining my comet shooting technique after the dramas of last time. I used a Nikon D810A with a Sigma Art 135mm lens at f/2, ISO200, 27 x 30 second shots during and beyond astro twilight. The camera was on a ZWO AM5, I used the ZWO ASIAIR Mini to polar align, then get my framing where I was happy with it, and ran the autofocus routine with a ZWO EAF connected to the lens. Once that was done, I ran unguided in continuous exposure mode with a wired shutter release that locks on, while I shot landscape astro comet shots with the other camera. For processing I used APP, I didn't do any comet alignment. I removed much of the astro twilight colour from the sky and with more subs the satellites are almost gone. The artifact on the bottom right is from the ground getting in the frame! Final processing in Photoshop."

Image Credit: Ian Inverarity

Capture Location: Western Australia
Image Date: Feb. 1, 2025

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