EarthSky
@earthskyscience.bsky.social
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earthskyscience.bsky.social
Tom Cofer captured this beautiful image of Comet #Lemmon yesterday from Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and wrote: "My first comet capture! Quite the ordeal learning how to process a #comet." What a superb job you did, Tom!
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Read about the comet and see more stunning images:
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Green ball with a fuzzy halo around and a greenish tail in a dark sky with some stars in the background.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
On any autumn or winter evening, scan between Cassiopeia and Perseus for the magnificent #DoubleCluster in #Perseus. The #stars in these 2 clusters are young, hot supergiant suns that are many thousands of times more luminous than our sun. 🌌🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
Star chart of Cassiopeia with a line pointing to 2 tiny dotted circles, labeled Perseus Double Cluster.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Victoria Bryhan in Corvallis, Oregon, captured this pumpkin patch on October 5 and wrote: "That's a lot of #pumpkin pie! Too much for me to eat on my own! I wish I'd seen it harvested." Thank you!
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Do you have an image you would like to share? We can't wait to see it!
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Thousands of pumpkins lie in the ground in lines in a field. Green trees and mountains in the distance.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Defunct #satellites and chunks of space debris now fall from orbit every day, and it's only increasing. What risk does this hold, and are we doing enough to deal with it? EarthSky’s Dave Adalian spoke with spaceflight expert Jonathan McDowell yesterday. 🛰️🌎🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
Smiling man on the left with Earth behind him, and smiling man with long hair on the right, in split-screen view.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Hi stargazers! Tonight the waning gibbous #moon will pass next to - and from some locations in front of - some of the stars of the #Pleiades cluster. It will be visible from North and Central America and other locations. Check Stellarium.org for times and views. 🌖🌌🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
A fat white hemisphere lies to the upper right of a number of small white dots. A white arrow points to the lower left through those white dots.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Interesting! Scientists at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, said late last month that - based on a reanalysis of data from the #PioneerVenus mission - aerosols in #Venus' clouds contain a lot more water and less sulfuric acid than thought. 💧☁️🔭
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📸 NASA/ Paul Hudson.
1 large and 4 small spacecraft approaching a planet with swirling clouds.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Using the Webb space telescope, scientists at Northwestern University said yesterday that they've captured the most detailed glimpse yet of a doomed #star before it exploded. This progenitor star is the dustiest and reddest #supernova source star yet observed. 🌌💥🔭
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📸 Northwestern.
A pretty picture of a spiral galaxy, with a tiny box showing the location of the supernova. In the upper right of the image, the tiny box is enlarged to show the supernova's progenitor star.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Have you wondered how high up #meteors are when they begin to glow? It can vary and depends on the #radiant of the #meteorshower and the #speed of its meteors. Read more here: buff.ly/SdVdvI8 🌠🔭

📸 John Ashley.
Bright meteor streaking over a lake and mountains.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Hi stargazers! Tonight the waning gibbous #moon will lie near the #Pleiades star cluster - aka the 7 Sisters - and not far from Aldebaran, the fiery eye of Taurus the Bull. 🌖🌌🔭

Watch this video:
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For more sky events, visit EarthSky’s night sky guide:
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📹 EarthSky.org.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Defunct #satellites and chunks of space debris now fall from low orbit every day. Are we doing enough to protect our future in near-Earth space? Find out today at noon CDT when EarthSky’s Dave Adalian talks with spaceflight expert Jonathan McDowell! 🛰️🌎🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
Smiling man on the left and man with long hair and hands outstretched on the right. A bright trail of debris in space is between them and bold white text in a blue rectangle at the top says 'SKYFALL!'
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Did you know? This week 30 years ago, astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz announced the discovery of the 1st #planet orbiting a distant sunlike star. The star was #51Pegasi, about 50 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus the Flying Horse. 🌌🔭
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📸 NASA/ JPL-Caltech.
Yellowish planet with bands in its atmosphere. Text annotations are above and to the right of it, on black background.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
A blast of solar material (a coronal mass ejection) is expected to impact Earth's magnetic field later today. This could trigger geomagnetic storms and auroras at high latitudes.

Read today's #sun news at: buff.ly/uukCWuq

📸 NOAA.
A map showing a green and red aurora oval over Canada and northern fringes of the US.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
New images of 3I/ATLAS ... from Mars! Between October 1 and 7, ESA’s #TraceGasOrbiter and #MarsExpress spacecraft turned their eyes toward interstellar comet #3IATLAS as it passed close to Mars. They had the closest view of the comet of all ESA spacecraft. ☄️🔴🔭
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📸 ESA/ TGO/ CaSSIS.
A fuzzy white object against the background stars.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
It's time for the #Draconid meteor shower! The parent comet of this shower - Comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner - was closest to the sun in March 2025. Does that mean we'll see a storm of Draconid #meteors this year? Possibly. The best night to watch is October 8-9. 🌠🔭
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📸 Daniel Gauss.
Starry sky with a meteor streak.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Look up to see #October evening #planets! This chart shows 3 planets as viewed from the Northern Hemisphere: #Saturn is in the southeast with #Mercury and dim #Mars very low in the bright southwestern twilight. Brighter Mercury joins Mars around mid-month. 🪐🌌🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
Sphere chart showing a dot above the lower left rim, Saturn. Hugging the right rim of the chart are 2 small dots, Mercury and Mars.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
This week’s #moon is in a waning gibbous phase. Waning gibbous moons rise later - and later - on each successive night. After every full moon, the moon sets in the west after sunrise. So the mornings following a full moon are a good time to catch a #daytime moon. 🌖🌌🔭
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📸 Steven Sweet.
Gibbous moon in daytime sky with trees in the foreground.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
On the night of October 9, the #moon will pass in front of the #Pleiades star cluster. Yesterday, EarthSky's Deborah Byrd and friends discussed when and where to look, what to expect through #binoculars or a #telescope, and why these lunar occultations happen in series. Watch here:
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7 bright stars with blue clouds around. A smiling woman in the left corner.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
This eruption launched plasma out into space and specialists are working to establish if the plasma could impact our planet's magnetic field. Other 2 bursts of sun-stuff are expected to reach #Earth over the next day, potentially triggering #geomagneticstorms and #auroras:
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📸 NOAA.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
For more than a decade, the United States had gone without an #EF5tornado, the strongest category on the Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale. But yesterday, the National Weather Service upgraded a #tornado that hit Enderlin, North Dakota, on June 20, 2025, to an EF-5. 🌪️
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📸 Wikimedia Commons.
Black-and-white view of a street with houses and a lowered funnel cloud in the background.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
According to a new study, the early #universe was warmer than once thought. The researchers looked at conditions around 800 million years after the #BigBang, during the Epoch of Reionization, a crucial stage in our universe’s #evolution. Why was it warmer than expected? 🌌🔭
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📸 NASA.
A blue graphic with circles inside it marking different phases of the universe.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Two #asteroids just buzzed Earth! The closest, #2025 TF, passed just 249 miles (400 km) over Antarctica on September 30 (roughly the same altitude as the ISS). Another one, #2025TQ2, zipped by on October 2, about 3,014 miles (4,850 km) above Canada. Read more:
🌎🔭
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📸 NASA/ JPL/ CNEOS.
Chart showing Earth and a red line for asteroid 2025 TF passing near the South Pole.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Kannan A in Singapore captured this #lunar halo on Saturday, during International Observe the Moon Night. Kannan wrote: "A lunar #halo appeared when the #moon was in its waxing gibbous phase at 91% full. The halo's appearance was a surprise indeed!" Thank you, Kannan!
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A bright moon in the center of the image, a grayish circle around. Trees in the foreground.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Wow, check out this bright #meteor! Dan Bush in Albany, Missouri, captured this stunning shot on his surveillance camera on Sunday. Thank you, Dan! 🌠🔭📸
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Go to EarthSky Community Photos to see more great images, and submit your own recent photos:

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Very bright white meteor shooting through the night sky and leaving a long trail above some trees and a house.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Brrr! 🥶 Paul C. Peh captured this #rainbow over #Kirkjufell mountain and the #Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall in freezing cold conditions in #Iceland on Sunday. Thank you, Paul! ⛰️🌈📸
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See more great images, and submit your own recent photos, at EarthSky Community Photos:

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Rainbow in a partly cloudy sky over a triangular mountain peak. A few people are standing on mossy ground next to a waterfall in the foreground.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
A rare sky event is coming! On the night of October 9-10, the #moon will pass directly in front of the #Pleiades star cluster as seen from much of the U.S. and Canada. We’ll show you when and where to look. Join us today at 12:00 CDT (17:00 UTC). 🌕🌌🔭
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📸 EarthSky.org.
2 smiling women on the left, with several bright white stars surrounded by a bluish cloud-like haze. Bold white text in blue rectangle at the top says 'Sisters disappear!'