POSSIBLE EARTH-DIRECTED CMEs: A series of M-class solar flares from sunspot AR4246 on Oct. 13th may have hurled one or more CMEs toward Earth. None of them appears to be a major storm cloud, but their combined effect could spark a geomagnetic storm later this week. Forecast modeling is underway. CME impact alerts: SMS Text.
WHERE IS COMET LEMMON? Answer: Under the Big Dipper. This Oct. 9th photo Petr Horálek on the the shore of Seč Lake in the Czech Republic shows approximately where to look:
"After many cloudy nights, I was finally lucky enough to shoot the brightening Comet Lemmon," says Horálek. "Despite the strong moonlight, the tail of the comet seems to be significant and most likely will show even nicer structures in the nights ahead."
Indeed, Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) is about to put on a good show. It is rapidly brightening, currently at magnitude +5, and poised to reach +3 or +2. A date of special interest is Oct. 21st when the comet makes a 0.6 AU close approach to Earth. The comet will be visible to the unaided eye and an easy target for photographers. Even cell phones with night-sky photo settings shold be able to catch it.
Look for Comet Lemmon low in the northwestern sky after sunset, and let the Dipper be your guide. Sky maps: Oct. 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
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MARTIAN SPACE SEED EXPERIMENT: This is a student science project--and you can participate. On Oct. 4, 2025, the young scientists of Earth to Sky Calculus launched six test tubes of garden seeds into the stratosphere, where they floated as high as 100,676 feet for almost three hours:
Supervised by Marvin the Martian, these okra, tomato, and jalapeño pepper seeds were exposed to temperatures as low as -63 C and cosmic ray fluxes 100x Earth-normal. In the Spring, the students will plant these seeds alongside control samples to discover the difference space travel makes.
You can do the same experiment! For $99, you can have a test tube of flown seeds and a packet of control seeds that remained on Earth. We'll be eager to hear what happens in your own space garden.
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