Hot on the tail of the Quadrantids meteor shower, another spectacle in the sky is about to arrive: comet Atlas C/2024 G3, which will reach perihelion—the point of its orbit closest to the sun—on January 13. On the same day, we will also see it at its closest point to Earth, and it could become 2025’s brightest comet, during a year in which no other comets are likely to be visible to the naked eye. Here’s everything you need to know.
C/2024 G3 was discovered on April 5, 2024, by the Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (Atlas)—a network of telescopes that scans space for asteroids that could potentially hit Earth.