Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope
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.