SPACE WEATHER SATELLITE LAUNCHED: Today, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an important new satellite for space weather forecasting. SWFO-L1 is NOAA's first satellite specifically designed for 24/7 space weather observations. It will orbit at the Lagrange 1 (L1) point, about one million miles from Earth, to continuously monitor the sun. Congrats, NOAA.
DON'T FORGET COMET LEMMON: With so much attention on interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS, it is easy to forget that there is a local comet brightening so rapidly that stargazers can soon see it with their own eyes: C/2025 A6 (Lemmon).
"This comet is developing very nicely and it is already an impressive object, well-placed for observation in the morning sky," says Nick James of the British Astronomical Association."It is definitely worth getting up for!" On Sept. 23rd he measured the comet at magnitude +8.0, and its light curve suggests it will reach naked-eye visibility during the first week of October:
"I think we can now be reasonably confident that this will be a very nice evening object when it is at its brightest around New Moon in late October," says James.
Astronomers are encouraged to start monitoring the comet now. It is quite active. "This morning it showed some motion with a large blob of material moving rapidly away from the head," James reports.
"On Sept 21st, the tail was so active that even modest equipment (600 mm telephoto lens on a Mirrorless Interchangeable-Lens Camera) revealed interesting details," says Beáta Ujvárosi, who sends this movie from Vácrátót, Hungary:
Comet Lemmon is currently in the constellation Lynx and will move toward the constellations of Leo Minor and Ursa Major in October. Submit your photos here.
Realtime Comet Lemmon Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
ALIEN RANSOM CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT: You can't buy this on Amazon. The Alien Ransom Christmas Ornament is only available from the Earth to Sky Store. On Sept. 15, 2025, it flew to the stratosphere onboard a cosmic ray research balloon:
You can have it for $129.95. Think of it as Santa's ransom :) Hand-sculpted in the USA, this humorous ornament is intricately detailed, from the alien pilot to Santa's boots. Durable polyresin construction makes it lightweight enough to hang on any tree but sturdy enough to last for many Christmases to come.
Far Out Gifts: Earth to Sky Store
All sales support hands-on STEM education
Realtime Space Weather Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter
Realtime Aurora Photo Gallery
Free: Spaceweather.com Newsletter