{"id":793092,"date":"2025-01-29T09:33:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793092"},"modified":"2025-01-29T09:33:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T14:33:04","slug":"requiem-for-a-comet-amazing-reader-views-of-g3-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=793092","title":{"rendered":"Requiem for a Comet: Amazing Reader Views of G3 ATLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Comet G3 ATLAS wows southern hemisphere observers and Universe Today readers before it fades from view.<\/em><\/p>\n

Comet G3 ATLAS, captured along with the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert in Chile on January 22nd. Image credit: Yuri Beletsky.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comets are always a true celestial treat to track. In a clockwork cosmos, the appearance of a potentially bright new comet is always a celestial question mark: will it perform up to expectations, or fizzle from view? Such was the case with Comet C\/2024 G3 ATLAS. <\/p>\n

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\"Clyde\"
Comet G3 ATLAS imaged from Namibia on January 20th courtesy of Clyde Foster. \u201cThe comet is putting on quite a show\u2026\u201d says Clyde. \u201cAnd can\u2019t have photos like that, without our beloved Namibian Camelthorn trees!\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Discovered on the night of April 25th<\/sup>, 2024 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey, the comet showed potential near perihelion in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Ian
Comet G3 ATLAS as seen from Middlemarch Otago, New Zealand. Credit: Ian Griffin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Demise of a Comet<\/h2>\n

Of course, such a close pass is always fraught with uncertainty: good cases in point are C\/2012 S1 ISON which disintegrated on U.S. Thanksgiving Day 2013, and W3 Lovejoy which survived a blistering perihelion just 140,000 km (!) from the surface of the Sun, and went on to become another fine southern hemisphere comet in late 2011 and early 2012.<\/p>\n

\"Daniele\"
Comet C\/2024 G3 ATLAS paired with Venus at dusk on January 24th over the Atacama Desert in Chile, courtesy of Daniele Gasparri. Daniele notes on Space Weather it was \u201c\u2026a scene of rare beauty: comet C\/2024 G3 ATLAS was perfectly visible to the naked eye, its very long tail standing out against the colors of the sunset and extending all the way toward Venus. Between these two \u2018giants\u2019 of the sky, I could see Saturn, the zodiacal light, and a thin greenish band of airglow.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Comet G3 ATLAS faced just such a perilous passage, reaching perihelion 14 million kilometers from the Sun on January 13th<\/sup>. SOHO\u2019s venerable LASCO C3 imager caught the comet near the Sun, as it topped -3.8 magnitude, the brightest comet since P1 McNaught in 2007.<\/p>\n

\"Comet\"
Comet G3 ATLAS crosses from SOHO\u2019s LASCO C3 view, into STEREO Ahead\u2019s Hi1 imager. Credit: NASA\/STEREO\/SOHO image compilation: Fred Deters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amazing Comet Captures<\/h2>\n

Reader images soon poured in, as the comet took the plunge southward and unfurled a fine dust tail. The comet was a bashful one for folks up north, as it only popped up north of the ecliptic from January 8th<\/sup> until January 15th<\/sup>. It always seems that bright comets have a \u2018thing\u2019 for southern hemisphere skies. <\/p>\n

\"ISS
Comet G3 ATLAS, as seen from the International Space Station. Credit: Don Pettit\/NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Few observers saw the comet post-perihelion up north. A few skilled astrophotographers did manage to nab dusty streaks of the tail known as syndynes<\/em> above the dusk horizon. One bizarre fact when it comes to comets: the tails are blown back by the solar wind, meaning the dust and ion tails of G3 ATLAS precede ahead<\/em> of the comet outbound.<\/p>\n

\"Fillip\"
This capture of the comet by Filipp Romanov over the Sea of Japan shows just how difficult the comet was the see for observers up north. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alas, perihelion seemed to have a delayed impact on the comet. Images taken around January 18th<\/sup> showed that the nucleus seemed to be in ill-health. G3 ATLAS soon became a \u2018headless comet\u2019 with a fading nucleus and a still-bright tail. The tail produced a remarkable striped look as a finale.<\/p>\n

\"comet
Lionel Majzik first discovered the breakup and demise of the nucleus of Comet G3 ATLAS, as seen in this amazing sequence spanning January 18th to the 23rd. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Future for Comet G3 ATLAS<\/h2>\n

Currently, comet G3 ATLAS shines at +5th<\/sup> magnitude and fading, in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.<\/p>\n

\"Daniele
The many tails of Comet G3 ATLAS, courtesy of Daniele Gasparri. \u201cComet G3 ATLAS seems unwilling to leave our sky,\u201d Daniele notes. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The comet was on a 160,00 year orbit inbound. Estimates put in on an 600,000-year outbound orbit. That is, for whatever fragments may remain to revisit the inner solar system on a far off date.<\/p>\n

\u2026and be sure to catch astrophotographer Dylan O\u2019Donnell\u2019s story about the perils of comet hunting:<\/p>\n