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A comet which orbits the Sun every 160,000 years will appear in the night sky this week, offering a rare opportunity
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is expected to be the brightest comet in nearly 20 years, making it the easy to spot like the planet Venus.
until this week, comet is only visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, however observers north of the equator will be able to see it as it returns to the Sun.
Emerging from the Oort Cloud in the Solar System, Comet G3 was first detected on April 5 last year by the Earth Impact Asteroid Last Alert System (ATLAS).
NASA astronaut Dom Pettit captured an image of comet C/2024 G3 from the International Space Station (ISS), showing the space rock just above Earth’s atmosphere.
“Absolutely amazing to see a comet from orbit,” he wrote on X. “Atlas C2024-G3 is visiting us.”
And other astronomers and space weather forecasters shared images comet, showing that its brightness has increased significantly since the beginning of the year.
Astronomers noted that the comet’s increasing brightness could be a sign that it is disintegrating, which would mean that this would be the last chance to ever see Comet G3 Atlas.
“The sudden jump in brightness was significant,” Nick James of the British Astronomical Association told Spaceweather.com.
“This could have been an early sign of disintegration, but the comet has continued to shine ever since. This outburst does not appear to have been fatal.”
It’s not yet clear how brightly the comet will appear in the night sky, with several factors potentially limiting its visibility.
Comet C/2024 G3’s proximity to the Sun could make it invisible to terrestrial viewers, but the chances of that happening are slim.
Anyone hoping to see the comet in the US and Europe is advised to look east towards the horizon about half an hour before sunrise between January 12 and 14.
The comet should also be visible about half an hour after sunset on January 14.