A green comet likely is breaking apart and won’t be visible to the naked eye

By: Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press Posted: 9:57 AM CDT Monday, Apr. 21, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — A newly discovered green comet tracked by telescopes has likely broken apart as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle.

Read this article for free:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

NEW YORK (AP) — A newly discovered green comet tracked by telescopes has likely broken apart as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle.

Read unlimited articles for free today:

or

Already have an account? Log in here »

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/04/2025 (542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

NEW YORK (AP) — A newly discovered green comet tracked by telescopes has likely broken apart as it swung by the sun, dashing hopes of a naked-eye spectacle.

Comet SWAN, hailing from the Oort Cloud beyond Pluto, has been visible through telescopes and binoculars over the past few weeks with its streaming tail, but experts said it may not have survived its recent trip past the sun and is fading fast.

“We’ll soon be left with just a dusty rubble pile,” astrophysicist Karl Battams with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory said in an email.

This image provided by Mike Olason shows the newly-discovered comet SWAN on April 6, 2025. (Mike Olason via AP)

Comets are balls of frozen gas and dust from billions of years ago. Every so often, a comet passes through the inner solar system.

“These are relics from when the solar system first formed,” said Jason Ybarra, director of the West Virginia University Planetarium and Observatory.

The newest comet was discovered by amateur astronomers, who spied it in photos taken by a camera on a spacecraft operated by NASA and the European Space Agency to study the sun.

The comet won’t swing close to Earth like Tsuchinshan-Atlas did last year. Other notable flybys included Neowise in 2020 and Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake in the 1990s.

The comet, also designated C/2025 F2, would have been visible just after dark slightly north of where the sun set. Its green color would have been difficult to see with the naked eye.

This might have been the object’s first ever trip past the sun, making it particularly vulnerable to breaking apart, Battams said. After its flyby, what’s left of the comet will disappear into the outer reaches of the solar system, past where scientists think it came from.

“It’s going to go so far out that we have no idea if it’s ever going to return,” said Battams.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.