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C/2025 K1 (ATLAS)
Parabolic comet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) is a non-periodic comet first seen in May 2025. It is one of many comets discovered by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS). The comet is dynamically new, having come directly from the Oort cloud.[4] With perihelion only 0.33 AU (49 million km; 31 million mi) from the Sun, the comet was not expected to survive perihelion passage,[8] but it did and was recovered on 18 October 2025. The comet is around apparent magnitude 10,[9] and visible in large binoculars. As of late-November 2025, the comet can be seen in the constellation of Camelopardalis. The comet has broken into multiple fragments and fragments A+B+C may be ejected from the Solar System.[10][a]
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Observational history
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The comet was first discovered on 24 May 2025 as an apparently asteroid-like object (temporarily designated as A11nyuL) from the ATLAS facility at Rio Hurtado, Chile.[1] At the time, it was a 19th-magnitude object with a slightly diffuse coma within the constellation Pegasus.[c] Observations from the Siding Spring Observatory noted a tail about 7.5 arcseconds long and a coma about 1.5 arcseconds across, brightening up to apparent magnitude 12.1 by 13 August 2025.[11]
Between 24 and 29 September, the comet was spotted in the same area of the sky from the Earth's perspective alongside C/2025 R2 (SWAN) as it gradually moved within the constellation Virgo.[12][13] In early November 2025 the comet experienced two apparent outbursts, with the comet brightening by 0.9 magnitude during the largest of which, on 4 November. On the same date, images by ZTF revealed a parabola of a material up to 10 arcseconds from the nucleus that the next day was not present while the tail had become brighter, which is consistent with the material moving tailwards.[14] This outburst later resulted with the comet experiencing a fragmentation event with two visible components, which was first spotted from the Teide Observatory on 10 November 2025.[15] By 13 November 2025, three fragments were visible.[16][17] SpaceWeather.com is now reporting a fourth fragment has appeared and that fragment A has brightened significantly, which may indicate another fragment may soon be visible.[18]
On 24 November 2025 the comet passed 0.401 AU (60.0 million km; 37.3 million mi) from Earth,[19] and about 12 degrees from Dubhe in the Big Dipper.
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Physical characteristics
Spectroscopic observations of the comet conducted from the Asiago Astrophysical Observatory between 3 and 15 August 2025 had revealed that its coma is significantly depleted in carbon-chain molecules, especially diatomic carbon (C2).[22] Additional data obtained from the Lowell Observatory on 19 August 2025 indicated it also has very low CN-to-OH and dust-to-gas ratios compared to other comets.[23] So far, only two other comets were known to have such carbon-poor composition, these were C/1988 Y1 (Yanaka) and 96P/Machholz.[23] On 13 November 2025, as the comet was fragmenting, the optical spectrum was dominated by NH2 while it was depleted in carbon species.[24]
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See also
Notes
- At a future epoch of 2200, when fragments A+B are outside the planetary region of the Solar System, they will retain a weakly hyperbolic trajectory.[4][5] Fragment-C has a short 10-day arc with larger uncertainties.
References
External links
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