Comet Atlas is falling apart, new photos confirm

The Virtual Telescope Project captured this view of Comet Atlas' shattered nucleus on April 11, 2020. (Image credit: Gianluca Masi/Virtual Telescope Project (www.virtualtelescope.eu))

It's official: Comet Atlas has broken apart.

Just a month ago, it looked like the icy wanderer, officially known as C/2019 Y4 Atlas, might put on a dazzling sky show around the time of its closest approach to the sun, or perihelion, which occurs on May 31.

But relatively lackluster behavior soon dimmed such hopes. And optimism surrounding the comet is now pretty much extinguished, for it's no longer in one piece.

Comet Atlas "has shattered both its and our hearts," astrophysicist Gianluca Masi, the founder and director of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy, said in an emailed statement on Sunday (April 12). "Its nucleus disintegrated, and last night I could see three, possibly four main fragments."

Masi posted online some of the photos he took, which clearly show the comet's splintered core.

Atlas was discovered in late December 2019 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in Hawaii, which explains the object's name.

Astrophotographer Ron Brecher, who's based in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, took this photo of Comet Atlas on April 10, 2020. (Image credit: Ron Brecher (astrodoc.ca))

From its detection date through mid-March, Comet Atlas ramped up dramatically, increasing in brightness by a factor of 27,500, according to Space.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao. As a result, professional and amateur astronomers alike began buzzing about its potential, some even daring to dream that Atlas might become the next great comet to brighten Earth's night skies.

But Atlas slammed on the brightness brakes on March 17, and it's now pretty clear why that happened.

Astrophotographer Chris Schur captured this view of Comet Atlas on April 9, 2020, from Payson, Arizona. "The comet appears quite diffuse now, hopefully there will be something left to see near perihelion!" Schur told Space.com via email. (Image credit: Chris Schur (http://www.schursastrophotography.com))

Such breakups are common for comets, which spend most of their lives in the frigid depths of the outer solar system and court danger whenever they get close to the sun. Indeed, Atlas itself may be the result of a previous fragmentation event; comet expert John Bortle told Rao that Atlas may be a chunk that broke off the famous comet of 1844 (which is officially designated C/1844 Y1).

Whatever Atlas' past may be, its future will not fulfill our skywatching dreams. But the next great comet is out there somewhere, and it will eventually make an appearance.

Editor's note: If you have an amazing comet photo you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, you can send images and comments to spacephotos@futurenet.com.

Mike Wall is the author of "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.