A bright comet could be visible in the skies over New Zealand in the coming days for the first time in more than 160,000 years.
NASA said the brightness of a comet is “notoriously hard” to predict, but Comet C/2024 G3 (Atlas) could remain bright enough to be seen by the naked eye.
On Monday, the comet was at perihelion — the point of its path closest to the Sun — which influenced how bright it appeared.
Stardome astronomer Josh Aoraki said Atlas C/2024 G3 was known as a “long period” comet.
These originated from a region of the outer Solar System called the Oort Cloud and took thousands, or in some cases, tens of thousands of years to orbit the Sun.
King’s College London described the comet, discovered in October 2024, as a once-in-160,000-year event.
Aoraki said it would be visible from New Zealand in the coming days.
“At the moment, it is currently too close to the Sun for us to see with the naked eye but —potentially into the weekend and probably early next week — we might be able to see it with the naked eye.”
The best time to see the comet would be about an hour after sunset, he added, just above the horizon in the west.
“That would be best time when it’s dark enough to have a 30-minute window to see, or most likely photograph the comet.”
NASA astronaut Don Pettit shared a photograph of the comet taken from the International Space Station on social media.
“It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. Atlas C2024-G3 is paying us a visit,” he said on Sunday.