Hubble Space Telescope accidentally witnesses comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) breaking apart

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a rare cosmic moment: a comet breaking apart in real time.

During its routine imaging of the universe, the space telescope spotted an unexpected object called C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), or comet K1 for short. Remarkably, Hubble's observations revealed that the comet's nucleus was actively fragmenting, according to a statement from NASA.

"Sometimes the best science happens by accident," John Noonan, co-author of the study and physics professor at Auburn University, said in the statement. "This comet [was] observed because our original comet was not viewable due to some new technical constraints after we won our proposal. We had to find a new target — and right when we observed it, it happened to break apart, which is the slimmest of slim chances.