Astronomy Picture of the Day - Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope

NASA ^ | 24 Jan, 2025 | Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory, TWAN)

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has made a dramatic appearance in planet Earth's skies. A visitor from the distant Oort Cloud, the comet reached its perihelion on January 13. On January 19, the bright comet was captured here from ESO Paranal Observatory in the Atacama desert in Chile. Sporting spectacular sweeping dust tails, this comet ATLAS is setting in the southern hemisphere twilight and was clearly visible to the unaided eye. In the foreground is the closed shell of one of the observatory's famous auxiliary telescopes. Still wowing southern hemisphere observers, the comet's bright coma has become diffuse, its icy nucleus apparently disintegrating following its close approach to the Sun.

Gr

[MtnClimber]

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[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[No name given]

Wow.

[ComputerGuy]

That’s quite a comet.

[AFB-XYZ]

I’m telling you, every single time I find myself becoming arrogant, one look at images like this will bitch-slap me back into humility. Thanks for posting it!

[Deaf and Discerning]

Wow - I wish I could have seen that one.

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[telescope115]

Quite a striking photograph.