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Comet ATLAS (C\/2024 G3) is currently descending toward the Sun and is expected to reach perihelion at approximately 10:15 UTC on January 13. <\/p>\n
C\/2024 G3 is a long-period, sungrazing comet discovered on April 5, 2024, by the ATLAS survey in Chile using a 0.5-meter reflector telescope. Initially, it was thought to be a new comet from the Oort cloud with minimal chances of surviving perihelion due to its weak absolute magnitude (H=9). However, refined orbital data revealed it is likely a dynamically old comet that has previously approached the Sun.<\/p>\n
By October 30, 2024, the comet had reached an apparent magnitude of 11.9 and was visible with large telescopes. By mid-December, it brightened to 8th magnitude, becoming visible in Scorpius during dawn for observers in southern and equatorial regions. By the end of December, its magnitude increased to 5 \u2013 5.5, with a coma spanning about two arcminutes and a tail up to 18 arcminutes long.<\/p>\n
On January 2, 2025, an outburst was reported by astronomer Terry Lovejoy, with the comet\u2019s magnitude surging to 3.7 photographically and 3.2 visually. By January 3, the comet had brightened further to a magnitude of 2 \u2013 2.4, making it visible to the naked eye.<\/p>\n
The comet entered the ESA\/NASA LASCO C3 field of view at around 06:00 UTC on January 11.<\/p>\n