Swan song of C/2024 G3 (ATLAS): Comet “ghost” graced the sky over Atacama

Astrophotographer Yuri Beletsky has published a new image of comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) taken in the Atacama Desert. Despite the fact that the core of the ice guest had already disintegrated by the time the photo was taken, its “ghost” still adorned the southern sky.

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) over the Atacama Desert. Source: Yuri Beletsky

C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was discovered in April 2024. It came from the Oort cloud: according to calculations, the last time the comet visited the inner part of the Solar System was 160,000 years ago. Due to this, it remained a dark horse for astronomers for a long time. No one could predict for sure how the comet would behave as it approached the Sun.

The comet passed the perihelion of its orbit on January 13, passing at a distance of only 13 million kilometers from the Sun (this is 3.5 times closer than Mercury). Afterward, it gained a huge tail and graced the sky of the Southern Hemisphere. C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) could be easily seen with the naked eye, and photographers took a lot of very spectacular photos of it.

Unfortunately, like many other comets approaching the Sun at such a short distance, the nucleus of C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) did not survive the heating and the accompanying processes of sublimation of matter and gas formation. Between January 18 and 19, the comet’s “head” sharply dimmed, indicating fragmentation of its nucleus. Simply put, the comet disintegrated into a lot of debris.

But although C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has effectively ceased to exist, it can still be seen in the sky, as the image shown here demonstrates. It was taken on the evening of January 19 from the grounds of the Paranal Observatory. In the image, the tailed guest is neighboring one of the auxiliary telescopes of ESO’s famous Very Large Telescope.

Observers likely have a few more days in which to attempt to photograph C/2024 G3 (ATLAS). The disintegration of the nucleus led to the release of a large amount of matter that will keep it bright for some time, thanks to which we can still observe the “ghost” of the comet. But it will eventually scatter into orbit along with the debris, after which C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) will disappear forever.

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