If it survives its close passage to the Sun, the celestial visitor could keep its head and be bright enough to see in daylight.

This Halloween, there might not be a headless horseman, but stargazers could potentially witness an otherworldy version of the folktale: a headless comet. Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) is on its way to make its closest approach to the Sun -- known as perihelion -- on Oct. 28. However, some astronomers believe the comet may not survive the close encounter, as its brightness has been fluctuating -- a telltale sign that its core is breaking apart, according to Spaceweather.com.

"The comet has almost certainly disintegrated," Qicheng Zhang of the Lowell Observatory in Arizona told the site. "There's probably not much left of its primary core." Researchers said the intense release of gas, along with tidal or rotational forces, may have caused the comet's fragmentation, according to Starwalk. In turn, the fragmentation may have resulted in the release of lots of dust and gas, which likely caused the comet to brighten rapidly after it was discovered. On Friday, the comet suddenly brightened again.

There's a chance the comet could instead become all tail and no head if its nucleus breaks apart during the perihelion passage. Zhang believes that just before the comet passes close to the Sun, it will reach a magnitude of +2, and fragments of rock will be hidden in its debris field. "Fragments larger than ~100 meters would provide enough raw material for a bright tail that swings around the Sun and becomes visible in the night sky after perihelion -- a 'headless comet' for Halloween!" reads Spaceweather.com. Per Starwalk, the spooky celestial display will appear as a long, curved tail without a bright head stretching out from the horizon.

Under a positive forecast, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) could become as bright as magnitude -5.1, making it brighter than Venus in the night sky and visible at dawn in the Northern Hemisphere even in a pre-dawn sky, if it survives perihelion. Should this be the case, it will move away, shining brightly and growing a longer and wider dust tail for a few days after. In a worst case scenario, the comet would continue to break apart and fully disintegrate before reaching perihelion.

Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) was just discovered on Sept. 27 by the ATLAS survey in Hawaii and officially confirmed on Oct. 1. It is thought to belong to the Kreutz sungrazer family, a group of incredibly bright comets that pass very close to the Sun. Historically, Kreutz sungrazers, including Ikeya-Seki (1965) and Lovejoy (2011), have often become bright enough to be visible even in daylight.