19/04/2026
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You have just days to see this comet before it’s gone for 170,000 years.
Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is making a brief and dramatic appearance in the Northern Hemisphere before vanishing for good.
Discovered in September 2025, the comet has been steadily brightening as it falls toward the inner solar system. Right now, it’s just bright enough to be seen with the naked eye under dark skies, appearing as a faint, blurry glow low on the eastern horizon.
But the window to see it is closing fast.
On April 19, the comet will reach perihelion, its closest point to the Sun. As it moves closer, it will become harder to spot, eventually disappearing in the Sun’s glare before shifting into the Southern Hemisphere sky.
For observers in the north, this is likely the last chance to see it.
To catch it, you’ll need a clear view of the eastern horizon about 90 minutes before sunrise. Under ideal conditions, the human eye can detect objects as dim as magnitude +6.5, and this comet is hovering around magnitude +4.7.
Binoculars or a camera can reveal even more detail, including the comet’s glowing nucleus and tail shaped by the solar wind.
But what makes this moment even more extraordinary is where this object comes from.
Comet PanSTARRS likely originated in the distant Oort Cloud, a vast shell of icy debris surrounding the solar system at distances between about 10,000 and 100,000 times the Earth–Sun distance.
Its journey toward us may have taken around 170,000 years.
Which means the last time this comet passed through the inner solar system, humans didn’t exist in their current form.
And after this pass, it won’t be back for another 170,000 years.
Learn more:
"How to see once-in-a-lifetime Comet PanSTARRS tonight before it disappears for good." Space