                        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
     A morning sky is shown about a line of trees. In the sky is a faint
    comet. The comet is shown in better detailed in an inset image on the
    upper left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                         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
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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