ATLAS Comet Falls Apart Near The Sun, Astronomers Capture Rare Break

In a striking development that has gripped the global astronomy community, fresh observations have confirmed that comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) is disintegrating as it moves through the inner solar system. Images captured from multiple observatories reveal that the comet, first spotted in May this year, has fractured into at least three major fragments.

The earliest signs of trouble emerged on the night of November 11, when astronomers at Italy’s Asiago Observatory recorded dramatic structural changes. High-resolution photographs from the 1.82-metre Copernicus telescope showed three distinct pieces drifting apart, a sight that prompted immediate scientific scrutiny.

Maggiotta Epifani, the Italian researcher who analysed the images, noted that two of the fragments appeared nearly identical in s