Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), detected by the ATLAS survey on September 27, 2024, will reach perihelion on October 28, 2024, coming within 0.0082 AU of the Sun. While many are hoping the comet could be brighter than previous records, NASA’s Dr. Karl Battams suggests it may just be a small fragment of the Kreutz family.
A new comet discovered by the ATLAS survey on September 27 and provisionally labeled A11bP71 was named C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) on October 1. It will pass its perihelion on October 28 at a distance of approximately 0.0082 AU, which is about 1.2 million km (around 762 000 miles) from the Sun’s center.
C/2024 S1 is part of the Kreutz family of sungrazing comets, which are known for their perilously close paths near the Sun, often resulting in dramatic disintegration events. These comets frequently provide striking visuals when captured on instruments such as the LASCO C3 and C2 coronagraphs.
Some astronomers are optimistic that it may become as bright, or even brighter, than Comet Ikeya-Seki (C/1965 S1) — the brightest Kreutz family comet observed so far, but this is far from certain. As Dr. Karl Battams from NASA’s Sungrazer Project mentioned, many Kreutz comets are smaller fragments, and predicting their brightness can be challenging since they often disintegrate when nearing the Sun.
The orbit and brightness of C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) are similar to Comet Lovejoy (C/2011 W3) — estimated to be about 500 m (1 640 feet) in diameter, which passed through the Sun’s atmosphere in December 2011. However, there are indications that this comet is brighter — and thus possibly bigger, and its perihelion distance is somewhat bigger than Lovejoy’s, so there is a chance that the comet may survive its passage at approximately 500 000 km (about 310 700 miles) above the solar surface.
What’s remarkable about this comet is that it was discovered a full month before perihelion, which is an very rare occurrence. The last time a Kreutz comet was found one month before perihelion was in 2011 with Comet Lovejoy.
This is how Lovejoy looked when it made its close approach to the Sun as seen by the LASCO C3 coronagraph:
It’s official: new Kreutz-group sungrazing comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) is headed for a toasty rendezvous on Oct28. While @esa/@nasa SOHO has seen 1000’s of Kreutz comets, it’s very rare for one to be found a month before perihelion. The last *similar* one was Comet Lovejoy in 2011 pic.twitter.com/Eb8zNuLsVA
— Karl Battams (@SungrazerComets) October 2, 2024
According to Battams, even if this comet turns out to be twice as large as Lovejoy, it would still be considered an average comet at best. The comet will primarily be visible in the Southern Hemisphere unless it displays some exceptional behavior at perihelion.
References:
1 C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) – JPL – Accessed on October 2, 2024
2 New sungrazing comet A11bP71 could outshine Venus in October – The Watchers – October 1, 2024