A recently discovered comet, which some stargazers had hoped to see during Halloween week, has disintegrated after it passed too close to the sun while flying through space.
The comet, named Atlas, was confirmed by NASA on Tuesday to have been destroyed after its sun-observing spacecraft captured the moment it broke into chunks while it passed too close to the sun.
The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured the comet as it approached the sun, sharing the video of its flight on social media.
The space agency shared that the comet reached its perihelion on Monday at 7:30 a.m. EST.
“Over the past few days, it has broken into chunks as it approached the sun,” NASA said.
Astronomers have been tracking the Halloween comet, also known as C/2024 S1, since it was spotted for the first time by a telescope in Hawaii in September.
The comet is thought to be a part of a family of comets that pass incredibly close to the sun. Its death was observed by a space observatory operated by NASA and the European Space Agency.