If you've been excited about the hype being drummed up around Comet C/2024 G3, you may have been a bit disappointed to discover it's only visible during daytime and placed rather poorly for observing in the Northern Hemisphere.
Comet C/2024 G3 is close to the Sun during the day, and sets with the Sun as evening falls, so if you were expecting another Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, you'll likely have found this comet lacking in visual spectacle.
But lucky for us, NASA astronaut Don Pettit has captured an image of C/2024 G3 and posted it on his X account.
Don Pettit is an amazing astrophotographer who famously captured an image of Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan ATLAS from the Space Station.
As it happens, he's done it again!
Pettit been able to show us just how spectacular C/2024 G3 really is by photographing it from his vantage point in Earth orbit.
He posted via his X account @astro_Pettit: "It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. Atlas C2024-G3 is paying us a visit."
C/2024 G3 ATLAS is a long-period comet, meaning it takes a very long time to complete one orbit of the Sun.
Once seen in the night sky, long-period comets can take hundreds of thousands of years to return again.
C/2024 G3 ATLAS reached its closest point to the Sun – perihelion – on 13 January 2025 and will now get dimmer and dimmer, lower and lower in the Northern Hemisphere sky over the coming months.
