EarthSky
@earthskyscience.bsky.social
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Updates on your cosmos and world.
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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. 🌌🔭
buff.ly/pykmkRY

📸 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. 🌠🔭
buff.ly/XbHfdmu

📸 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. 🪐🌌🔭
buff.ly/mP9BY1V

📸 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! 🌠🔭📸
buff.ly/kkuzX9I

Go to EarthSky Community Photos to see more great images, and submit your own recent photos:

buff.ly/moQkn9b
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! ⛰️🌈📸
buff.ly/sO6hYTT

See more great images, and submit your own recent photos, at EarthSky Community Photos:

buff.ly/moQkn9b
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). 🌕🌌🔭
buff.ly/wfquu5m

📸 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!'
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Tonight's full moon will be a Super #HarvestMoon, bigger and brighter! It’ll be the 1st of 4 #supermoons in a row. The #moon will be visible all night and will be close to #Saturn. For more sky events, visit EarthSky's night sky guide:
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📸 EarthSky.org.
Chart showing a full moon and a dot for Saturn nearby.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Do you like black and white #photography? Bill Kozar in Taylorsville, Indiana, captured this scene of a #buzzard and a #crow last Wednesday. Thank you, Bill! #birds 🐦📸
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See more great images, and submit your own recent photos, at EarthSky Community Photos:

buff.ly/BsHEyI8
Black and white image of 2 birds sitting on tree branches, with their wings open.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Is that a #seamonster?! No, just a log drifting at the #shoreline of the beach. Kevan Hubbard in County Durham, England, took this photo on Sunday. Thank you, Kevan! 📸
buff.ly/bHya3Lg

Go to EarthSky Community Photos to see more great images. And you can submit your own photos, too!

buff.ly/BsHEyI8
Dark log that kind of looks like a sea monster in the water at the edge of a beach. Waves and scattered clouds in the sky are in the background.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Comet Lemmon might be the best #comet of the year. Read about it, see pics and consult finder charts at buff.ly/TzZxQFB

📸 Mario Rana
Glowing fuzzy ball in a starfield. It has a long, complex tail.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Sudhir Sharma of New York, while visiting Uttarakhand, India, captured this view of the Himalayan #glaciers at Badrinath Mountain on September 30, 2025. Thank you, Sudhir!
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Have a photo of your own to share? Submit it here!
buff.ly/ilSFKJU
Majestic mountain peaks partially covered in mist and clouds, with rocky slopes and grassy terrain below.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
Hooray! It’s #meteor time! Look for the #Draconid meteor shower next week. Plus, they blend in with the popular Orionids. And the Taurid shower is ongoing now as well. Follow these tips to see them: buff.ly/J4nVfsB

📸 Nils Ribi.
Bright streak in densely starry sky with band of Milky Way across it, and foreground rock formations.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
The 2025 Super #HarvestMoon falls at 10:48 p.m. CDT on October 6. Why is the Harvest Moon in October this year? It’s the full moon closest to the equinox. For more about the Super Harvest Moon, read here: buff.ly/KP65A4k
Title: Big Bright Moon, near a series of orange full moons rising.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
New way to explore Mars, better than wheeled robots? Researchers in Austria and the Netherlands proposed a new kind of rover to roam the Martian desert. Read about Tumbleweed rovers here: buff.ly/5PQMJMu

📸 OEWF/ AMADEE20/ Kingsnorth et al./ Europlanet (CC BY 4.0).
A geodesic sphere composed of interlocking loops, with rounded flat panels inside it. It is sitting near low hillocks in a desert.
earthskyscience.bsky.social
The solar wind coming from the #sun fueled geomagnetic activity last week, but it's weakening. No new Earth-directed CMEs were observed and flare activity dipped to low, with only C flares detected over the past day. Read the #sun news at: buff.ly/fjCmVbz

📸 SDO/ JHelioviewer.
Four solar images showing the Sun in red, yellow, purple, and blue ultraviolet wavelengths.