2026 may be less than two weeks away, but a new comet is already leading the way to becoming this year’s “Great Comet.” The much-anticipated ice ball may be visible to the naked eye and is scheduled to make its closest approach to us within four months from now.
Scientists discovered the incoming comet, named C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), on September 8, 2025, in images captured by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), a 5.9-foot (1.8-meter) reflecting telescope atop Hawaii’s Haleakala volcano. It is currently about 216 million miles (348 million kilometers) from Earth, about halfway between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, according to TheSkyLive.com.
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C/2025 R3 is currently accelerating toward the Sun and is scheduled to reach perihelion, or the closest point to our home star, on April 20th. It will come within 47.4 million miles (76.3 million km) of the Sun, which is somewhere between the orbits of Mercury and Venus.
Just one week later, on April 27, the comet will make its closest approach to Earth, coming within 44 million miles (70.8 million km) of Earth. This is more than 180 times further away than the Moon.
Astronomers still don’t know how bright the comet will shine during its close approach to the Sun, Live Science’s sister site Space.com recently reported. Some researchers predict that the star will reach an apparent magnitude of 8. This means it will only be visible through a decent telescope or stargazing binoculars. But some estimate it could reach a magnitude of 2.5 and be clearly visible to the naked eye. (Apparent magnitude is measured on an anti-logarithmic scale, with lower numbers meaning greater brightness.)
When to see Comet C/2025 R3
The best chance to see C/2025 R3 will likely be just before perihelion, around April 17, when the new moon will darken the night sky, making it easier to spot the object at the limits of what can be seen with the naked eye. However, due to its closest approach to Earth, the comet may be obscured by the Sun, making it difficult to detect. Observers in the Southern Hemisphere may get a good look at the comet in early May.
Whether a comet becomes visible to the naked eye may depend on a phenomenon known as forward scatter, which occurs when a comet is directly between the Earth and the Sun, as C/2025 R3 is. If this happens, the comet’s tail will likely scatter more sunlight, increasing its brightness, according to Space.com.
A comet’s brightness also depends on how it responds to increased solar radiation. As a comet approaches the Sun, it absorbs more sunlight, releases trapped ice and gas, and reflects sunlight back toward Earth. However, it is too early to predict exactly how this will affect C/2025 R3.
According to Space.com, C/2025 R3 will be located directly below the Great Plaza Pegasus in the constellation Pisces during its perihelion and approach to Earth.
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What will be the next “Great Comet”?
Several amazing comets have passed by Earth in recent years, including the explosive “Devil Comet” 12P/Pons-Brooks, the “once in a lifetime” Comet Tuchinshan-Atlas, which passed in 2024, and the super bright comets Lemmon and Swan, which simultaneously lit up our skies last year.
In 2025, astronomers also discovered the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. This comet dominated the headlines due to wild and unsubstantiated rumors that it was an alien spacecraft. It made its closest approach to Earth in December, but is now rapidly receding and will soon be gone forever.
At this point, there aren’t many notable comets expected to pass by this year, so many are speculating that C/2025 R3 could be the “big comet” of 2026. This comet is a superlative title often used to describe the brightest comet of the year.
But there’s always the possibility that an even better, brighter comet will be discovered soon and make a similarly spectacular flyby later this year.
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