Different ATLAS Comet Seems Fragmented After Close Encounter with The Sun

New photographs of the opposite ATLAS comet present that it has fragmented because it continues its journey following its go to to the solar final month.

The observations have been made by The Virtual Telescope Project 2.0 final week and comply with proof of two outbursts reported in The Astronomer’s Telegram. The Italian astronomer Gianluca Masi posted an replace on Nov. 11 with a picture of C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) and “its ‘double’ nucleus.”

According to Masi, the second nucleus could also be “a cloud of debris.” Also seen within the image is a “spike-like feature” that factors to the route of the solar.

Updates posted within the following days present this “spike-like feature” getting stronger. Additional clouds of particles can be seen within the photographs.

On Nov. 14, Masi notes, “Several parts (sub-nuclei or clouds of debris) are still visible, with an interesting arc-like feature on the left, in the solar direction.”

C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) Flying Too Close To The Sun

The C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) was recognized in May this 12 months by astronomers concerned within the “Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System” (ATLAS).

The comet reached its perihelion — the purpose in its orbit closest to the solar — on Oct. 8, when it got here inside 0.335 astronomical models (AU) or 31,180,206 miles of the star, in keeping with The Sky Live. It can now be seen passing via the constellation Ursa Major and can attain its closest strategy to Earth later this month, on Nov. 25, when it would seem at a distance of 0.403 AU (37,488,865 kilometers) from the planet.

Astronomers have been uncertain whether or not C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) would survive its drive-by the solar. Passing inside such a brief distance of the solar would have prompted temperatures to ramp up, producing circumstances that might trigger a fragmentation occasion.

But whereas it appeared to have withstood the preliminary passage, these newest photographs counsel it didn’t make it out in a single piece for lengthy. According to The Astronomer’s Telegram, Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) and Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in California noticed two “apparent” outbursts — sudden modifications in brightness — between Oct. 31 and Nov. 4.

On November 10, an instantaneous e mail discover revealed on The Astronomer’s Telegram reported “two leading fragments…with the second fragment appearing noticeably brighter than the first.” There have been additionally “two additional fainter fragments…visible farther along the same orientation.”

C/2025 K1 (ATLAS): The Color Changing Comet

C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) has been dazzling astronomers and stargazers for months, as have two different comets lighting up the night time skies — C/2025 R2 SWAN and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon).

Images taken by NASA in September seem to point out the comets racing, although that is purely a coincidence. (C/2025 R2 SWAN had already reached its perihelion and was heading outbound, whereas C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) was but to achieve its perihelion and was travelling inbound on the time the image was taken.) Also notable is the placing emerald hue emitted by each comets. The greenish tint will be the results of a response between diatomic carbon molecules (C2) and light-weight.

But like a celestial chameleon, C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) has modified color, remodeling from inexperienced to gold in newer weeks.

While the comet could not have made its journey to and from the solar totally intact, its fragmentation could supply astronomers the possibility to discover its composition in additional element, Elena Mazzotta Epifani, analysis astronomer on the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) Rome Astronomical Observatory, stated in a translated statement.

Read More: Radio Signals Detected From Comet 3I/ATLAS — What Its Interstellar Origins Reveal

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed research and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors assessment for scientific accuracy and editorial requirements. Review the sources used beneath for this text:

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