Comet C/2024 G3: All you need to know about it

On January 13, the comet is said to be visible in the morning sky, especially before sunrise, and could even be visible with the naked eye if it’s bright enough

Hyderabad: The comet C/024 G3 was first discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey on April 5, 2024 in Chile. The comet will be more visible, as it gets closer to the Sun and Earth. Its brightness will depend on how much it heats up and releases gas as it gets closer to the Sun. It will shine brighter when the closest approach to Sun, which will be on January 13 at perihelion.

In the first week of January, at different magnitudes, it was reported that the comet experienced an outburst, had brightened, had a nuclear shadow, a dark lane in the tail, and was visible with the naked eye.

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Once in a lifetime

It is long-period orbit, which takes roughly 160,000 years. On January 13, it should be visible in the morning sky, especially before sunrise, and could even be visible with the naked eye if it’s bright enough. It is going to be extremely close to the Sun, four times than Mercury, and predicted to become extremely bright about as bright as Venus and Jupiter.

How to view

There will be a three-day window between Jan 12-14, where it will be 45 minutes before sunrise and look towards where the Sun is rising and for about 30 minutes before the sun rises, it’ll be able to spot it near the horizon. Similarly, it will be about 15 minutes after sunset as well. It will be beneficial to use binoculars to view the celestial event.