Comet 24P/Schaumasse makes its closest approach to the sun today: But will you be able to see it?
Solar system comets are often at their brightest as they draw close to the sun
Comet 24P/Schaumasse imaged on Dec. 29 2025 through an 8-inch telescope. (Image credit: Messier/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0)
Heads up! The solar system comet 24P/Schaumasse will make its closest approach to the sun in its current orbit on Jan. 8 during an event known to astronomers as perihelion. Here's what to expect from the icy wanderer as it reaches peak visibility over the coming days.
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The short-period comet was discovered by astronomer Alexandre Schaumasse in December 1911 using a 16-inch (400 mm) telescope situated at an observatory in Nice, France. The primordial object has an orbit that takes it beyond the path of Jupiter before careening back inwards towards the sun — a journey that it makes roughly once every eight years, according to NASA.
Comets tend to be at their brightest around perihelion, when the increase in solar heating causes icy material in their central coma to vaporize and feed the envelope of gas surrounding the solid nucleus. This gas catches and reflects the sun's light, which can cause the comet to brighten significantly, occasionally rendering them visible to the naked eye in Earth's night sky.
Will comet 24P/Schaumasse be visible to the naked eye?
Magnitude
Magnitude is the scale used to measure the apparent brightness of objects in the night sky. The lower the number, the brighter the object! For context, the brightest stars are around Mag +1, while a full moon is -13 and the sun is -27.
24P/Schaumasse will make its closest pass of the sun on Jan. 8, according to In-the-sky, when it will pass 109.7 million miles (177 million kilometers) from our parent star. The comet currently has an observed brightness, or , of approximately +10.8, per the (COBS) run by the Crni Vrh Observatory in Slovenia.
