In the second week of 2025, we may see a brand new object grace the skies as comet ATLAS (C/2024) G3 will get near the solar.
In the wake of comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) in October, comet G3 is because of attain perihelion — its closest to the solar — on Jan. 13, 2025. That day, this icy customer to the internal photo voltaic system will get to inside simply 8.3 million miles (13.5 million kilometers) from the solar.
For context, Mercury orbits the solar from as shut as 29 million miles (47 million kilometers). Jan. 13 will even see comet G3 closest to Earth, so at its brightest as seen from our planet.
Although comet C/2024 G3 could possibly be the brightest comet of 2025, it is solely more likely to grow to be a naked-eye object to observers within the Southern Hemisphere. According to The Planetary Society, comet G3 may get as shiny as magnitude -4.5, about the identical brightness as Venus throughout January 2025. It will likely be within the constellation Sagittarius.
However, the comet’s unusually shut journey to the solar makes its survival questionable. In its favor is the truth that its orbital path means that it visited the internal photo voltaic system about 160,000 years in the past, so it could have survived an in depth cross earlier than. “It will likely be strongly heated and should not survive,” stated Nick James, director of the British Astronomical Association‘s comet part. “But if it does, it could be a powerful object within the night sky from the southern hemisphere after perihelion.”
If it does get by way of its perihelion unscathed, comet G3 is more likely to be about as shiny as Venus within the west within the post-sunset sky after Jan. 13 from the Southern Hemisphere. However, James additionally stated that the comet’s closeness to the solar implies that observing it could possibly be harmful and that it “ought to solely be tried in case you are an skilled observer.”
There will even be some interference by moonlight across the time of comet G3’s perihelion. A shiny moon will likely be within the japanese sky within the few evenings earlier than January’s full “Cold Moon,” which on Jan. 13 will rise reverse the comet on the japanese horizon. That could make observations a bit harder, although with the moon rising about 50 minutes later every evening after the full moon part, situations will rapidly enhance for post-sunset viewing.
Discovered on Apr. 5, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) system of telescopes, G3 comes from the Oort Cloud, a sphere of comets that encircles your complete photo voltaic system.
