No tricks, but skywatchers may be in for an October treat when a newly discovered comet passes through our skies. Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) — or SWAN25B for short — looks to be heading our way.
The comet — named after the science instrument aboard the SOHO space observatory, which observes the sun — was first spotted on Sept. 11 by Ukrainian amateur astronomer Vladimir Bezugly, while studying images captured by SWAN.
"This is a milestone, the 20th official SWAN comet so far," Bezugly told Universe Today.
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Bezugly made the discovery one day before the comet reached its closest point to the sun, which is known as perihelion.
"It was an easy comet for detection due to sufficient brightness in the (ultraviolet) band and location in the SWAN images, exactly in its center," Bezugly told Universe Today. "But it was difficult due to the very close location to the sun and angular motion, which is very close to the sun's motion in SWAN images."
On Sept. 17, an observatory in Chile snapped a photograph using a telescope, showing SWAN25B with a bright coma and striking emerald ion tail. A coma is an atmosphere that forms around a comet as it nears the sun. The sun's heat causes the frozen gases and icy chunks in the comet's nucleus to change and create an atmosphere.
"With its orbit still poorly constrained due to a very short observational arc, this comet has quickly become a fascinating target to follow in the coming weeks," the team in Chile said.
What exactly is a comet?
NASA calls comets "cosmic snowballs of frozen gases, rock, and dust that orbit the sun," noting that "when frozen, they are the size of a small town."
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