A Headless Halloween Comet Will Meet Its Fiery Doom This Week And You Can Watch

A headless Halloween comet looks to round out an October that's chock-full of celestial delights. Comet 2024 S1 (Atlas) is on track to make its close approach to the Sun on October 28, and is currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere.

October has been a great month for stargazers, with the ability to see an extremely rare comet that may only pass by Earth every 80,000 years, to the Orionid meteor shower lighting up the sky with shooting stars. Now, to finish out the month, another new comet may be making an appearance, and this one may lose its head as it makes its way around the Sun.

Comet C/2024 S1 was first discovered on September 27, 2024, in Hawaii by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Laser Alert System (ATLAS) project, and was first catalogued as an asteroid. However, it was quickly verified as a comet and not an asteroid. Also, unlike Comet 2023 A3, which made its first appearance earlier this month, the Halloween comet will get more than one hundred times closer to the Sun.

Initially, experts thought Comet C/2024 S1 may not make it intact before appearing on the other side of the Sun because of its close approach to the Sun, as its nucleus appeared to be disintegrating two weeks ago. The comet surprisingly brightened on October 18, and developed a long, thin gas tail, most likely breaking apart, releasing more gas and dust as it approached the Sun. However, the comet has proven to be tougher than initially believed.

If the comet survives, it will most likely lose its head in the process, hence the “headless” nomenclature. According to experts, the first critical for date Comet C/2024 S1 will be October 26. This will be when the comet will enter the view of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft, which has a sole purpose of monitoring the Sun 24/7. At this point, astronomers will be able to tell what condition the comet is in, and how much, if any, of it still exists.

Then, on October 28, the comet will enter perihelion, or its closest approach to the Sun. It is during this time that the comet could completely disintegrate, if it hadn’t already, or emerge without its head while still having its bright and visible tail.

Star Walk, a night sky app, remarked on a post about the comet on its X account, “In early November, if it survives, the comet’s tail could be visible in the pre-dawn sky near the Virgo constellation, evoking memories of the stunning Comet C/1965 S1 (Ikeya-Seki) seen 60 years ago.”

If the headless comet makes it intact after passing the Sun, experts say the best time for viewing in the Northern Hemisphere should occur between October 29 and November 6. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the best time to view the headless comet will be Halloween morning just before sunrise above the south-southeast horizon.