Comets can be huge.
When far from the Sun, a comet's size usually refers to its
hard nucleus of ice and rock,
which typically spans a few kilometers -- smaller than even a
small moon.
When
nearing the Sun, however, this
nucleus can
eject dust and gas and leave a
thin tail that can spread to an
enormous length --
even greater than the distance between the
Earth and the
Sun.
Pictured,
C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) sports a
tail of sunlight-reflecting dust and glowing gas that
spans several times the apparent size of a full
moon, appearing
even larger on
long duration camera images
than to the unaided eye.
The
featured image shows impressive Comet ATLAS over trees and a grass field in
Sierras de Mahoma,
San Jose,
Uruguay
about a week ago.
After being
prominent in the sunset skies of
Earth's southern hemisphere,
Comet G3 ATLAS is
now fading
as it moves away from the Sun,
making its impressive tails increasingly hard to see.