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[APOD: 2025 February 2 – Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250202.html)

[apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2502/AtlasDisintegrating_Majzik_1080.jpg ](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250202.html)APOD: 2025 February 2 – Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates What's happening to Comet G3 ATLAS?

After [passing near the Sun](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250120.html) in mid-January,
the head of the comet has become dimmer and dimmer.

By late January, Comet [C/2024 G3 (ATLAS)](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2024_G3_(ATLAS))
had become a [headless wonder](newsweek.com/comet-atlas-disintegrating-brightest-solar-system-sun-2017615) -- even though it continued to show [impressive](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250124.html) [tails](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250126.html) after sunset in the skies of [Earth](earthobservatory.nasa.gov/)'s [Southern Hemisphere](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Hemisphere).

Pictured are images of Comet G3 ATLAS on successive January nights taken from [Río Hurtado](youtu.be/a5jUyVPIDAk), [Chile](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile).

Clearly, the comet's head is brighter and more [centrally condensed](reddit.com/media?url=https://i.redd.it/jvtxke42851c1.jpg) on the earlier days (left) than on later days (right).

A key reason is likely that the [comet's nucleus of ice and rock](science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets), at the [head](spaceplace.nasa.gov/comets/en/anatomy-of-a-comet.en.jpg)'s center, has [fragmented](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230903.html).

Comet G3 ATLAS passed [well inside](theskylive.com/c2024g3-info) the orbit of [planet Mercury](science.nasa.gov/mercury)
when at its solar closest, a distance that where heat [destroys](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010521.html) [many](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000808.html) [comets](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000913.html).

Some of comet G3 ATLAS' [scattering remains](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230903.html)
will continue to [orbit the Sun](apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240811.html).