Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek /
Institute of Physics in Opava
Explanation:
Comet ATLAS is really bright now, but also really close to the Sun.
Outside the glow of the Sun,
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) would be one of the more remarkable comet sights of recent years, reflecting about as much sunlight to Earth as
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS did in October,
and now
rivaling even planet
Venus.
But the giant snowball is now
so close to the Sun that it can only be seen through the
light of the early morning dawn or the early evening dusk.
Today, Comet ATLAS is at
perihelion -- its closest ever to the Sun.
Although the future brightness of comets is
notoriously hard to predict, there is hope that
Comet ATLAS will survive its close pass near the Sun and
remain bright
enough to be seen with the unaided eye over the next few days --
and possibly a good
camera comet for weeks.
The
featured image
was taken early yesterday morning near
Tornada,
Slovakia.
Tomorrow:
Zoom APOD Lecture hosted by the Amateur Astronomers of Association of New York
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
