Comet ATLAS, which should have been visible from Earth at the end of October, burns up while approaching the Sun. Video

Astronomers predicted that in October, two comets would be visible in the evening sky at once - the familiar C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS and C/2024 S1 ATLAS. And while the first comet has been delighting the inhabitants of our planet with its flights for several months, the second, unfortunately, never showed its tail to earthlings, as it burned up flying into the Sun.

Comet S1 was supposed to be a celestial Halloween "treat." However, the latest images from the SOHO spacecraft show that the bright traveler disintegrated as it was heading for perihelion, the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, Space.com reports.

Comet ATLAS was discovered just last month, on September 27. And while the news of C/2024 S1's demise saddened enthusiasts, it was not a surprise. Over the weekend, comet expert Karl Battams warned on his X page that S1 would not survive its perihelion.

And even earlier, on October 9, astronomers reported that the comet began to crumble as it approached the inner part of the solar system, EarthSky writes.

Scientists compared observations of comet S1 from Australia's Siding Spring Observatory on October 3 with observations from the South African Astronomical Observatory on October 8. The researchers said that the nucleus, or central icy ball of the comet, "appeared elongated and fainting," suggesting a possible fragmentation of the nucleus.

The final demise of Comet ATLAS was confirmed by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft jointly operated by NASA and the European Space Agency. The images clearly show the comet fading on its way to the Sun.

According to the researchers, C/2024 S1 was a "dirty snowball", a frozen body consisting of gases, rocks and dust left over from the earliest days of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.

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