Comets 2024-2025 Schedule: When Is the Next Comet?

If you’ve always wanted to see a comet, now is the perfect time! Several comets might become visible through binoculars or even with the naked eye in late 2024 and early 2025. Our Sky Tonight app will help you easily find any comet in the sky in your specific location. Let’s see what the heavens have in store for us!

Contents

• C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) ⭐⭐⭐
• C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) ⭐⭐⭐
• 333P/LINEAR
• C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) ⭐
• How to find a comet using Sky Tonight?
• Next comet visible from Earth: Bottom line

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) ⭐⭐⭐

• Perihelion: September 27, 2024 (mag 2.9)
• Closest approach to Earth: October 12, 2024 (mag -4)
• Where to observe: Southern Hemisphere (before perihelion), Northern Hemisphere (after perihelion)
• Visibility forecast: Comet C/2023 A3 currently has a magnitude of around 1 but is hardly observable from Earth due to its proximity to the Sun. The comet has grown a huge 21-degree tail — comparable to the size of the Big Dipper! The best observing time in the Northern Hemisphere will be from around October 14 to October 24. By that time, the comet will be far enough from the Sun in the sky and might become as bright as the planet Venus! To see the comet, you should look to the west shortly after sunset. Read our article to get a detailed guide on observing Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.
• Description: C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) is a comet from the Oort cloud discovered by the Purple Mountain Observatory on January 9, 2023, and independently found by the ATLAS astronomical survey on February 22, 2023. It has already become the brightest comet of the last decade!

C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) ⭐⭐⭐

• Perihelion: October 28, 2024 (mag -8.5)
• Closest approach to Earth: October 23, 2024 (mag 6.8)
• Where to observe: Southern Hemisphere (before perihelion), Northern Hemisphere (after perihelion)
• Visibility forecast: At perihelion, Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) might become brighter than Venus and visible with the naked eye even in the daytime sky! The best observation conditions will be in the Southern Hemisphere; there, the comet will be visible in the evening. If C/2024 S1 survives perihelion, it will also later become visible in the mid-northern latitudes during the morning. Read our article to learn all the details about Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS).
• Description: Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was discovered on September 27, 2024, by the ATLAS astronomical survey. It belongs to the family of Kreutz sungrazers — the comets that come extremely close to the Sun at perihelion. C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) will possibly be the brightest Kreutz family comet since the famous C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki), which was observed in 1965 and reached a magnitude of -10.

333P/LINEAR

• Perihelion: November 29, 2024 (mag 9.8)
• Closest approach to Earth: December 9, 2024 (mag 10)
• Where to observe: Both hemispheres
• Visibility forecast: In November 2024, the comet might become visible through large binoculars or a small telescope.
• Description: 333P/LINEAR is a Jupiter family periodic comet discovered by the LINEAR project in 2007. The comet has a retrograde orbit and an orbital period of 8.7 years.

C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) ⭐

• Perihelion: January 13, 2025 (mag -2.0)
• Closest approach to Earth: January 13, 2025 (mag -1.8)
• Where to observe: Northern Hemisphere (before perihelion), Southern Hemisphere (after perihelion)
• Visibility forecast: If we’re lucky, Comet C/2024 G3 might become visible to the naked eye, even in the daytime, by January 2025. However, it also might not survive perihelion and, even if it does, will be positioned quite close to the Sun in the sky. Read our article to learn more about this comet.
• Description: Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was discovered on April 5, 2024, by the ATLAS astronomical survey. Judging by its orbit, it might be a dynamically new comet, which means it enters the inner Solar System for the first time.

How to find a comet using Sky Tonight?

Comets are faint and fuzzy objects that are hard to detect, so it’s best to know their location for certain. The Sky Tonight app will help you quickly find any bright comet in the sky. Here’s what you need to do:

• Tap the magnifier icon at the lower part of the screen;
• In the Search field, enter the comet’s name or designation (for instance, “C/2023 A3”);
• Find the comet in the search results and tap the blue target icon next to its name;
• The app will show the comet’s current location in the sky;
• Point your device at the sky and follow the white arrow to find the comet.

You can also tap the comet’s name in the search results and then go to the Events tab to view the events related to the comet: perihelion and closest approach to Earth. Tap the blue target icon next to the event to see the comet’s location at the time of perihelion or closest approach.

Next comet visible from Earth: Bottom line

In October 2024, not one but two very bright comets might grace our skies: Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and the recently discovered C/2024 S1 (ATLAS). Both of them promise to become visible to the naked eye, so we can hope for a truly spectacular celestial show! After that, Comet C/2024 G3 will possibly become visible in the daytime sky in January 2025. Use the Sky Tonight astronomy app to find any of these comets in the sky in your exact location.

While working on this article, we used data provided by the Comet Observation database, TheSkyLive website, as well as by astronomers Gideon van Buitenen and Seiichi Yoshida.