The ‘Great Comet of 2025’ Lights Up the Skies in Stunning Photos

Feb 07, 2025

Matt Growcoot

Left: A comet with a bright tail crosses the starry sky above a calm ocean, with rock formations in the background. Right: A telescope under a starry sky captures the same comet with its tail stretching across an orange-tinted horizon. — Photo credit: Tapiaphotos, left, Yuri Beletsky/ESO, right.

Comet G3 (ATLAS) recently appeared in the skies above Earth: a rare celestial visitor that is thought to appear just once every 600,000 years. It lit up the skies of the southern hemisphere and has been dubbed the “Great Comet of 2025.”

For the most part, astrophotographers in the northern hemisphere weren’t able to resolve the comet anything like those south of the equator. The European Southern Observatory — located in the Atacama Desert, Chile — shared a series of breathtaking photos of the comet above the Paranal Observatory.

A bright comet with a long tail is visible against a starry night sky over a silhouetted mountain with observatories on top. The horizon glows with a warm orange hue, creating a striking contrast with the dark landscape. — Florentin Millour captured this breathtaking wide-field image of comet Comet G3 (ATLAS) on January 21 from ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The Very Large Telescope sits atop Cerro Paranal to the left, while the comet sets in the western horizon right after sunset.

Silhouette of a person and a large telescope against a night sky. A bright comet with a visible tail appears above, surrounded by stars, creating a striking contrast in the monochrome image. — Juan Beltrán/ESO

ESO’s Paranal Observatory is one of the world’s premier locations for stargazing and astrophotography. The Atacama Desert boasts some of the darkest skies in the world: far from light pollution and radio interference.

A bright comet with a glowing tail streaks across a starry night sky. The background is a gradient of green to red hues, adding a colorful contrast to the scene. — Gas and dust particles are ejected from the nucleus of the comet and pushed away from the Sun by the solar wind and radiation, creating a spectacular display with multiple tail. | Abel de Burgos Sierra/ESO

A large observatory telescope is positioned on a flat surface under a vibrant twilight sky. A bright comet with a glowing tail is visible, stretching across the sky as stars twinkle against the deep blue and orange horizon. — Comet G3 above one of the auxiliary telescopes belonging to the ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. | Yuri Beletsky/ESO

Comet G3 reached perihelion — its closest point to the Sun — on January 13. Many observers believed that it wouldn’t survive and the cosmic snowball would disintegrate. This is because it was presumed the comet was a new one originating from the Oort cloud. But as astronomers studied the comet, it was found to be more likely an older comet — one that has made close approaches to the Sun before. The ESO explains that it is now moving away from Earth’s star but “there are signs that the nucleus might have fragmented even though the tail is still visible.”

A photograph of space with the horizon of Earth visible at the bottom. There's a striking bright line along the horizon and a glowing comet with a trail pointing up into the dark sky filled with stars. The top shows part of a spacecraft. — The comet was also visible from space: astronaut and photography legend Don Pettit captured this image in January. “It is totally amazing to see a comet from orbit,” Pettit wrote on X.

A cityscape at dusk with bright lights illuminating the buildings. In the sky, a comet with a glowing tail is visible. The horizon shows a gradient from orange to dark blue, and a notable illuminated statue stands on a distant hill. — Comet C/2024 G3 soars above the city of La Serena, Chile. | NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/A. Lopez

A comet streaks across the night sky over a calm ocean, illuminating the scene. Two large rock formations rise from the water in the distance, with faint stars dotting the sky. Waves gently ripple across the foreground. — G3 illuminates the night sky above Punta de Lobos, a natural beauty spot on the Chilean coast. | Tapiaphotos

A comet with a bright tail streaks across a starry night sky above a silhouetted landscape. The foreground features a body of water and dark outlines of trees and hills. — The comet above Mallacoota, Victoria, Australia. | Caroline Jones

If you’d like to have a go at capturing the next comet that visits the solar system, then why not check out PetaPixel’s comprehensive astrophotography guide.