THE CME MISSED: A CME hurled into space by Friday's X4-class solar flarepassed Earth on Nov. 16th (~0100 UT). The near miss did not spark a geomagnetic storm. This brings an end to the stormy space weather caused by sunspot 4274, which will spend the next two weeks transiting the farside of the sun. Earth is no longer in the strike zone. Solar flare alerts: SMS Text.
THE GOLDEN COMET IS FALLING APART: Last week, California astronomer Dan Bartlett pointed his telescope at golden comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) to capture a close encounter with the Leo Triplet of galaxies. He quickly realized something was wrong.
"Upon close inspection, the coma appeared to be somewhat flattened, and the nucleus appeared somewhat elongated," he noticed.
These were early signs that the comet was breaking apart. On Nov. 12th, Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy saw the comet's nucleus splitting into three pieces:
"I managed to capture several fragments of this comet," says Masi. "This animation shows Nov. 12th vs. 13th, making clear how things evolved."
Even before it started crumbling, astronomers knew the comet was unusual. It had an almost-unheard-of golden color probably linked to its strange chemistry. All of the carbon compounds, which give comets their usual green and blue colors, are severely depleted in C/2025 K1 (ATLAS). No one knows why.
Now, the golden comet is a triple comet. You can see the fragments drifting apart using a mid-sized backyard telescope. The 10th magnitude comet is located in the morning sky not far below the bowl of the Big Dipper. Sky maps: Nov. 17, 18, 19 , 20.
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ARCTIC NIGHT SPACE PENDENT: Are you looking for a far-out Christmas gift? Consider the Arctic Night Pendant . It has flown to the edge of space onboard an Earth to Sky cosmic ray research balloon, more than 105,546 ft high:
You can have it for $99.95. The heart-shaped pendant displays a loving pair of howling Arctic wolves, a shooting star, the full Moon, and rippling sheets of aurora borealis. It comes with a greeting card showing the pendent in flight and telling the story of its trip to the edge of space and back again.
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