New Cosmic Visitor Alert!
Meet Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) — one of this year’s most exciting sky shows!
Discovered on September 11, this comet is already putting on a beautiful display. Right now, it’s glowing around magnitude 6, which means you can catch it with binoculars under dark skies.
Where to look: Currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere in the evening sky From mid-October, it will move into the Northern Hemisphere’s evening sky.
When it gets closest: On October 20, 2025, the comet will pass just 0.26 AU from Earth. If it keeps brightening, it may reach magnitude 4 — faintly visible to the naked eye! Why is it so special?
C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is a long-period comet, which means this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After it passes near the Sun, it won’t return for thousands of years — if it returns at all.
Pro tip: Track its exact path with Sky Tonight or Star Walk 2 (link in bio) to make sure you don’t miss it!
Meet Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) — one of this year’s most exciting sky shows!
Discovered on September 11, this comet is already putting on a beautiful display. Right now, it’s glowing around magnitude 6, which means you can catch it with binoculars under dark skies.
Where to look: Currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere in the evening sky From mid-October, it will move into the Northern Hemisphere’s evening sky.
When it gets closest: On October 20, 2025, the comet will pass just 0.26 AU from Earth. If it keeps brightening, it may reach magnitude 4 — faintly visible to the naked eye! Why is it so special?
C/2025 R2 (SWAN) is a long-period comet, which means this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After it passes near the Sun, it won’t return for thousands of years — if it returns at all.
Pro tip: Track its exact path with Sky Tonight or Star Walk 2 (link in bio) to make sure you don’t miss it!
The Shark Nebula. There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula. This predator apparition poses us no danger as it is composed only of interstellar gas and dust. Dark dust like that featured here is somewhat like cigarette smoke and created in the cool atmospheres of giant stars. After being expelled with gas and gravitationally recondensing, massive stars may carve intricate structures into their birth cloud using their high energy light and fast stellar winds as sculpting tools. The heat they generate evaporates the murky molecular cloud as well as causing ambient hydrogen gas to disperse and glow red. During disintegration, we humans can enjoy imagining these great clouds as common icons, like we do for water clouds on Earth. Including smaller dust nebulae such as Lynds Dark Nebula 1235 and Van den Bergh 149 & 150, the Shark nebula spans about 15 light years and lies about 650 light years away toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia (Cepheus).
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The view from the surface of Comet 67P by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta spacecraft
After 245 days in space and nearly 4,000 orbits around the planet,
JonnyKimUSA
has concluded his mission on the
Space Station
, returning to Earth on Dec. 9. Kim's mission benefits life on Earth while helping advance our journey from the Moon to Mars.
JonnyKimUSA
has concluded his mission on the
Space Station
, returning to Earth on Dec. 9. Kim's mission benefits life on Earth while helping advance our journey from the Moon to Mars.