Once-in-a-lifetime ‘sungrazer’ comet set to shine through skies and it’s one of the brightest in 20 years
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ONE of the brightest comets to pass Earth in nearly 20 years could be visible to the naked eye in a once-in-a-lifetime display next week. The space rock, formally known as G3 ATLAS (C/2024), is expected to reach peak brightness later this week. It will maintain its glow into early next week, as it gets closest to the Sun on 13 January.
![[a comet is visible in the night sky above a desert]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-comet-seen-hemispheres-easier-940604470.jpg?strip=all&w=640)
It could shine as bright as Venus, or similar to Tsuchinshan-ATLAS / Comet C/2023 A3, the "comet of the century" that stunned stargazers in mid-October. The comet was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on 5 April last year - when it was 407 million miles away from Earth.
![[a castle with a comet in the sky above it]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/diameter-tail-extending-18-million-940585955.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
It is now zooming past at less than 9million miles from the Sun - an exceptionally close pass that could allow it to be visible to the naked eye. Small 'sungrazer' comets often don't make it past the burning blaze of Earth's closest star. Let's take the 'Halloween Comet' / C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) for example; calculations suggested that this hunk of celestial debris would be visible to the naked eye even in daylight skies.
![[a comet is visible in the night sky above the mountains]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/crop-31057742.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
But it flew too close to the Sun, and burnt up before stargazers got a chance to see it. Scientists, however, remain hopeful. After examining G3 ATLAS's orbit, scientists determined that it takes this space rock roughly 160,000 years to make its pass of Earth and the Sun.
