Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.2025 January 13 
Comet ATLAS Before Sunrise Image Credit & Copyright: Petr Horalek /Institute of Physics in Opava Explanation: Comet ATLAS is really bright now, but also really close to the Sun.Outside the glow of the Sun, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) would be one of the more remarkable comet sights of recent years, reflecting about as much sunlight to Earth as Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS did in October, and now rivaling even planet Venus.But the giant snowball is now so close to the Sun that it can only be seen through the light of the early morning dawn or the early evening dusk.Today, Comet ATLAS is at perihelion -- its closest ever to the Sun. Although the future brightness of comets is notoriously hard to predict, there is hope that Comet ATLAS will survive its close pass near the Sun and remain bright enough to be seen with the unaided eye over the next few days -- and possibly a good camera comet for weeks.The featured image was taken early yesterday morning near Tornaľa, Slovakia. Tomorrow: Zoom APOD Lecture hosted by the Amateur Astronomers of Association of New York Tomorrow's picture: do north <| Archive| Submissions | Index| Search| Calendar| RSS| Education| About APOD| Discuss| > Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff(MTU) &Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)NASA Official: Amber StraughnSpecific rights apply.NASA Web Privacy,Accessibility, Notices; A service of:ASD atNASA /GSFC, NASA Science Activation& Michigan Tech. U.
