Possibly the brightest comet of 2025, Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has been dazzling Southern Hemisphere skywatchers, including South Africans, over the past few days.

According to space.com, G3 ATLAS is believed to be an old comet, having made at least one previous close approach to the sun, with an orbital period of roughly 160 000 years.

“It reached its peak brilliance this week, coinciding with perihelion, or its closest point to the sun, on Monday,” an article on space.com reads.

The comet will get to within just 13.5 million kilometres of the sun, says Livescience.com. “To put this in context, Mercury orbits the sun from as close as 47 million kilometres.”

The Best Comet of 2025!
Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has started to become very faintly visible to the naked eye for observers in the Southern Hemisphere
Once-in-a-160000-year comet G3 ATLAS could shine as bright as Venus

The comet reached its peak brightness on January 13, 2025, and… pic.twitter.com/2GFDhGdUZf

— கவி தா🇮🇳 (@kavitha129) January 19, 2025

Dr Matt Burleigh, who was working at the South African Astronomical Observatory in Cape Town yesterday, posted his sighting on X:

Very fortunate to be working here at the @SAAO observatory in South Africa this evening and Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas finally appeared in the evening sky behind our telescope. pic.twitter.com/wQ0bLLyvbj

— Dr Matt Burleigh (@Matt_Burleigh) January 18, 2025

Nasa astronaut Don Pettit photographed the comet in space:

It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit. Atlas C2024-G3 is paying us a visit. pic.twitter.com/6Npqa2Wksf

— Don Pettit (@astro_Pettit) January 11, 2025

The comet was seen in Namibia too:

MARVELOUS NIGHT GUEST … A comet named C/2024 G3 was witnessed in Windhoek’s skies on Friday, 17 January. Scientists define comets as cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the sun. When frozen, they are the size of a small town. pic.twitter.com/FaEb4Km6YQ

— The Namibian (@TheNamibian) January 18, 2025

Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has finally arrived in the Southern Sky! 🤩 It’s clearly visible as a very bright object shortly after sunset. Although the tail is still quite short, the comet is truly beautiful. We are so looking forward to capturing more tonight !#comet #c2024g3… pic.twitter.com/a3dha3cbTu

— Yuri Beletsky (@YBeletsky) January 17, 2025

On Friday, Earthsky.org shared numerous photographs of the comet taken around the world.