The rare comet that recently lit up Earth's night skies for the first time in millennia may be disintegrating after passing too close to the sun, new photos suggest. But it's too early to say for sure.
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Comet ATLAS made its closest approach to Earth on January 14 and reached its closest approach to the sun, known as perihelion, a day later. As a result, it shone as brightly as Venus for several days and was visible across the globe. It has now begun its long journey back to the Oort Cloud – a reservoir of comets and other icy objects near the edge of the solar system – and is not expected to return for about 160,000 years.
Although the comet has now become too faint for humans to see with the naked eye, astrophotographers have continued to capture images of the comet as it travels back to the outer solar system – and things aren't looking good for the icy object.
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Hungarian astrophotographer Lionel Majzik photographed the comet from the dark skies of Chile for three consecutive nights, between January 18 and January 20. He noticed that the cloud around its nucleus had significantly diminished during this period, suggesting that the comet's head may have begun to break apart, according to Spaceweather.com.
The photos also showed a bright streak of light, or "stream," in the comet's tail, which is a sign that large amounts of gas and dust are leaking from the comet, possibly through new cracks in its core, due to its approach to the Sun.
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Comets like this one disintegrate when high levels of solar radiation crack their cores and cause severe evaporation. This slowly destabilizes the object and causes it to break up into fragments that are loosely bound together by gravity. Eventually, these fragments break apart and scatter along the comet's orbital path.
Source: livescience
