WEEKEND UPDATES (OR LACK THEREOF): Normal updates to Spaceweather.com may be intermittent this weekend. Dr. Tony Phillips is ice climbing in the Sierra trying to locate a high-altitude balloon payload that landed in Oct. 2022. This will be the 12th attempt to find it. It was buried in deep snow on slopes overlooking Echo Lake during the megawinter of 2022-23. Some of that snow is still melting 3 years later, raising (irrational) hopes that radiation sensors and camera footage may yet be recovered.
COMETS ARE BEING PHOTOBOMBED: Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is rapidly brightening and could become a naked-eye object in October. First, it has to fight through the interference. This movie of the comet from Lionel Majzik of Tápióbicske, Hungary, is streaked by a mixture of bright and faint lines:
These are satellites crossing the field of view--members of a growing number of megaconstellations crowding low Earth orbit.
A rising percentage of long-exposure comet images submitted to Spaceweather.com show this kind of interference. Our photo gallery is rife with examples. Here's one of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS being photobombed. And another. And another. The vast majority of streaks are Starlink satellites.
Astronomers have raised alarms. Future plans call for as many as 42,000 Starlink satellites--and Starlink is not alone. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has begun launching its planned 3,200-satellite broadband fleet. China is pushing even harder, with two separate megaconstellations on the drawing board: Guowang (13,000 satellites) and "Qianfan" ("Thousand Sails", 15,000-plus), Together, they could eventually rival or surpass Starlink in size.
If all these plans come to frution, the sky may one day host 100,000 small reflectors competing with celestial targets. Astronomers should take their long exposures now ... while they still can.
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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
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