{"id":181805,"date":"2025-11-15T09:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/181805\/"},"modified":"2025-11-15T09:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T09:33:11","slug":"comet-c-2025-k1-atlas-fragments-as-it-approaches-its-november-25-close-pass-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/181805\/","title":{"rendered":"Comet C\/2025 K1 ATLAS fragments as it approaches its November 25 close pass to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh observations of comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS) obtained on November 13 show that the object has fragmented into several components following its recent perihelion passage.<\/p>\n

The data was acquired by the Virtual Telescope Project using a remote Celestron C14 telescope paired with a Paramount ME mount and an SBIG ST-10XME CCD, operated from Manciano, Italy. Fifteen unfiltered 60-second exposures were combined via sigma-clipping to preserve fine structural detail within the inner coma.<\/p>\n

The resulting image displays multiple discrete condensations, interpreted as sub-nuclei or compact debris clouds, along with a faint plume positioned below the leading fragment.<\/p>\n

A second product, processed with a 20-degree rotational-gradient filter centred on the brightest component, enhances these structures and highlights the spatial separation between the fragments.<\/p>\n

Using imagery from both November 12 and 13, the Virtual Telescope Project produced an animation documenting the relative motion of the individual units over a 24-hour period.<\/p>\n

The sequence confirms that the breakup was well underway by mid-November, with distinct elements diverging inside a broad, diffuse coma.<\/p>\n

C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS) was discovered on May 24 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. Orbital solutions place its perihelion on October 8, at a distance of roughly 0.334\u20130.335 AU from the Sun.<\/p>\n

The comet will make its closest approach to Earth on November 25, at approximately 0.403 AU. Its near-parabolic eccentricity, around 1.0015 depending on the specific solution, identifies it as a dynamically new object likely arriving from the Oort Cloud.<\/p>\n

Spectroscopic studies conducted earlier in the apparition reported that the comet\u2019s coma is strongly depleted in carbon-bearing species, including C2 and CN, placing it within the small group of carbon-chain-depleted comets known so far.<\/p>\n

This compositional signature, coupled with its dynamical youth, provides an opportunity to examine volatile behaviour in previously unprocessed material.<\/p>\n

  • \"The\n

    The inner coma after a 20-degrees rotational gradient filtering. Credit: Gianluca Masi\/Virtual Telescope Project<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \"Comet\n

    Comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS) on November 13, 2025 at 04:30 UTC, showing multiple bright fragments and a diffuse dust structure in the inner coma. The image is a sigma-clipping combination of fifteen 60-second unfiltered exposures, taken with a remotely operated C14 + Paramount ME + SBIG ST-10XME system of the Virtual Telescope Project in Manciano, Italy. The telescope tracked the comet during acquisition, resolving the primary components and associated dust plume. Credit: Gianluca Masi\/Virtual Telescope Project<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \"The<\/li>\n
  • \"Comet<\/li>\n

    At the time of the November 13 observations, the comet was located in the constellation Leo, positioned for pre-dawn observation depending on longitude and sky brightness conditions. <\/p>\n

    References: <\/p>\n

    1 Comet C\/2025 K1 ATLAS fragmentation: 13 Nov. 2025 image and animation. \u2013 Virtual Telescope Project <\/a>\u2013 November 13, 2025 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh observations of comet C\/2025 K1 (ATLAS) obtained on November 13 show that the object has fragmented into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":181806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[102658,18,19,17,133,451],"class_list":{"0":"post-181805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-comet-c-2025-k1-atlas","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115553029987782815","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}