Brightest comet in 20 years to appear this week
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’New Years Comet’ will appear as bright as Venus – and won’t be back for another 160,000 years. A comet that orbits the Sun every 160,000 years will appear in the night sky this week, offering a rare chance. The Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is expected to be the brightest comet in nearly 20 years, making it as easy to spot as the planet Venus.
![[The orbital path of Comet C/2024 G3]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/13/13/Screenshot-2025-01-13-140153.jpg)
Until this week, the comet has only been visible to people in the Southern Hemisphere, however observers north of the equator will be able to view it as it heads back towards the Sun. Emerging from the Oort Cloud in the solar system, the G3 comet was first discovered on 5 April last year by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS).
Nasa astronaut Dom Pettit captured a picture of Comet C/2024 G3 from the International Space Station (ISS), showing the space rock just above the Earth’s atmosphere. “It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit,” he wrote on X. “Atlas C2024-G3 is paying us a visit.”.
Astronomers have noted that the comet’s increasing brightness could be a sign that it is breaking up, which would mean that this will be the last chance to ever see the G3 Atlas comet. “The sudden jump in brightness was significant,” Nick James from the British Astronomical Association told Spaceweather.com.
“This could have been an early sign of disintegration, but since then, the comet is still brightening. It looks as if this outburst has not been fatal.”. It is not yet clear how bright the comet will appear in the night sky, with several factors potentially limiting its visibility.
