 |
| In mid-January 2025, ESA and NASA’s SOHO spacecraft captured comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) passing just 8 million miles from the Sun, with the comet’s bright head causing sensor “bleeding” in the images from SOHO’s LASCO instrument. |
From January 11 to 15, 2025, a dazzling comet, C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), caught the attention of astronomers as it surged through the solar system, captured in stunning images from the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA’s SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) spacecraft. The comet made its closest approach to the Sun, known as perihelion, on January 13, passing a mere 8 million miles from our star — just 9% of the average distance between Earth and the Sun.
The views of comet ATLAS were obtained using SOHO’s LASCO (Large Angle and Spectrometric Coronagraph) instrument, which obscures the Sun’s surface to reveal the faint structures in its corona and around it. First discovered in April 2024 by the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey, comet ATLAS is just one of over 5,000 comets observed by LASCO during its mission.
Karl Battams, principal investigator for LASCO at the U.S. Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C., processed the images to highlight fine details of the comet’s tail, which reacted to solar wind as it passed by the Sun. This interaction is crucial for heliophysicists studying the Sun’s influence on the solar system and on passing comets.
Although the comet was briefly visible to observers in the Northern Hemisphere just after sunset near perihelion, it is now moving away from the Sun and is becoming more prominent in the Southern Hemisphere’s darker skies. However, there are concerns that the comet may have broken apart during its close encounter with the Sun, potentially causing it to fade quickly in the coming days.
The SOHO mission, a collaboration between ESA and NASA, continues to provide invaluable insights into the solar system’s dynamic environment. Mission operations are managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, with LASCO’s instrument built by an international team led by the U.S. Naval Research Lab.
As comet ATLAS slowly recedes from view, astronomers continue to monitor its behavior, hoping to learn more about the solar wind’s impact on comets and their evolving characteristics.