C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) is a long-periodic, sunskirter comet, which will pass perihelion on January 13, 2025, at a distance of 0.09 AU from the Sun. It could become the brightest comet of 2025,[citation needed] possibly exceeding apparent magnitude of –2.0, possibly making it the 3rd brightest comet in 20 years, although comets such as Comet McNaught and C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) have had higher peak magnitudes. Although no amateur observations of the comet have been observed in the night sky,[citation needed] it is speculated to be visible best in the southern hemisphere before and after perihelion. It can only be observed in the daytime sky around perihelion in the northern hemisphere.[citation needed]
| Discovery[1] | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | ATLAS-W68 |
| Discovery date | 5 April 2024 |
| Orbital characteristics[2] | |
| Epoch | 6 June 2024 (JD 2460467.5) |
| Observation arc | 206 days |
| Number of observations | 271 |
| Perihelion | 0.09 AU |
| Semi-major axis | 2,631 AU (inbound) 6,135 AU (outbound) |
| Eccentricity | 0.9999970(Epoch 1 Jan 2022) 1.0000141(Epoch 6 Jun 2024) 0.9999973(Epoch 1 Jan 2028) |
| Orbital period | 135,000 years (inbound) 450,500 years (outbound) |
| Inclination | 116.852° |
| 220.331° | |
| Argument of periapsis | 108.127° |
| Next perihelion | 13 January 2025 |
| Earth MOID | 0.4826 AU |
| Jupiter MOID | 3.8373 AU |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 8.8 |
| Comet nuclear magnitude (M2) | 12.4 |
Observational History
editThe comet was discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey on April 5, 2024. The comet at the time was at magnitude 18.99 object about 4.38 AU (655 million km) from Earth. At the time of discovery, it was assumed that this was a new comet from Oort cloud, and with its very weak absolute magnitude (H=9), there was very little to no chance that it would survive perihelion.[citation needed] But as the orbit was refined it was reclassified as a periodic comet. This was also indicated by the brightness dynamics exhibited by the comet.[citation needed]
By 30 October 2024, the comet had an apparent magnitude of 11.9 per reported observations at the Comet Observation Database (COBS)[3], visible with large telescopes. Typically, new long-period comets from the Oort cloud increase their brightness much slower compared to other comets, typically when they are closer to the sun than 3-4 AU, assuming 2.5n=~8.[citation needed] Nearing perihelion, the comet could have a peak apparent magnitude value of 0.0 magnitude[citation needed] but could be enhanced by forward scattering and become as bright as -2.0 magnitude. [4]
References
edit- ^ S. Yoshida. "C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)". www.aerith.net. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
- ^ "C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) – JPL Small-Body Database Lookup". ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
- ^ "Observation list for C/2024 G3". COBS – Comet OBServation database. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
- ^ http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2024G3
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