Comet ATLAS brightens as it nears the Sun, providing scientists with valuable data on solar wind interactions and offering a rare celestial spectacle.

In the photo from the space station, the comet is captured just above Earth’s horizon, which is illuminated by a bright light — also known as airglow — that occurs in the planet’s upper atmosphere when atoms and molecules emit light after being excited by sunlight.

G3 (ATLAS) did it! It survived its perilous perihelion, getting ten times closer to the Sun than Earth does. This comet is a sungrazer comet, and the encounter made it bright – so bright that even at a considerable distance,

January 13, 2025, as Comet G3 ATLAS (C/2024) reaches its peak brightness. This once-in-a-lifetime spectacle marks the comet's closest approach to the Sun, bringing it within 8.7 million miles of the Sun at its perihelion.

Astronaut Don Pettit took this stunning photo of a nearby comet from the International Space Station

Comet G3 ATLAS (C/2024) is expected to reach its maximum brightness tomorrow. The celestial phenomenon may even outshine the planets Venus and Jupiter. The comet was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey in Chile on April 5, 2024. It was at magnitude +19 then and hard to spot due to its faintness.