                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2025 September 30
    A starfield is shown that has a bright comet. The comet shows a green
      head on the lower left and an ion tail with significant structure
    extending out to the upper right. Please see the explanation for more
                            detailed information.

                           Comet Lemmon Brightens
          Image Credit & Copyright: Victor Sabet & Julien De Winter

   Explanation: Comet Lemmon is brightening and moving into morning
   northern skies. Besides Comet SWAN25B and Comet ATLAS, Comet C/2025 A6
   (Lemmon) is now the third comet currently visible with binoculars and
   on long camera exposures. Comet Lemmon was discovered early this year
   and is still headed into the inner Solar System. The comet will round
   the Sun on November 8, but first it will pass its nearest to the Earth
   -- at about half the Earth-Sun distance -- on October 21. Although the
   brightnesses of comets are notoriously hard to predict, optimistic
   estimates have Comet Lemmon then becoming visible to the unaided eye.
   The comet should be best seen in predawn skies until mid-October, when
   it also becomes visible in evening skies. The featured image showing
   the comet's split and rapidly changing ion tail was taken in Texas, USA
   late last week.

                    Growing Gallery: Comet Lemmon in 2025
                       Tomorrow's picture: mopping up
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

