{"id":182790,"date":"2025-09-26T10:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/182790\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T10:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T10:32:13","slug":"newly-discovered-comet-will-be-visible-over-wyoming-through-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/182790\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Discovered Comet Will Be Visible Over Wyoming Through October"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a newly-discovered comet streaking across the night sky, and any Wyomingite with a good pair of binoculars can see it for the next month.<\/p>\n

Comet C\/2025 R2 (SWAN), the \u201cSWAN Comet,\u201d was discovered by an amateur astronomer on Sept. 11. Its current stellar magnitude is 7, slightly above the threshold of what’s visible to the naked eye, making it relatively bright for a newly discovered comet.<\/p>\n

Max Gilbraith, planetarium coordinator at the University of Wyoming, encourages Wyomingites to find the SWAN Comet while it\u2019s visible. It might be a while before there\u2019s another comet we can see from Earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say, but we could have a drought until Halley\u2019s Comet comes back in 2061,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another New Comet<\/p>\n

Most of the comets seen over Wyoming in the last several years, like\u00a0Comet Tsuchinshan \u2013 ATLAS<\/a>, have been recent discoveries. They\u2019re smaller and less spectacular than Halley\u2019s Comet, but modern technology makes them easier to spot.<\/p>\n

Gilbraith said Comet SWAN is significant because it\u2019s not from our neighborhood. Astronomers believe it originated from outside our solar system.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the third time we’ve ever discovered something coming from outside of the solar system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve found a string of objects that suggest we\u2019re passing through an interstellar debris field or passed through one 200 years ago. If you ran the odds, the SWAN Comet might be once in a lifetime, but we’ve seen three of these comets in eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the website EarthSky<\/a>, Australian comet expert Michael Matiazzo captured an image of the comet on Sept. 14. Its trail was 2.5 degrees long, which is five times larger than the diameter of the moon.<\/p>\n

The SWAN comet is still low on the western horizon, which makes it difficult to see. Over the next few weeks, the view will get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a comet\u2019s close to the Sun and really low on the horizon, the amount of air mass we’re looking through reduces its brightness, quite a bit past where the naked eye can see it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe viewing angle will get better as we get into October, so it’ll be easier to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AstrophotographerAstrophotographer Dan Bartlett got this image of the newly discovered Comet 2025 F2 (SWAN) as seen on earthsky.org. (Photo by Dan Bartlett)During The Drought<\/p>\n

Drought is a year-to-year concern for farmers and ranchers, but Gilbraith said Earth has been in a \u201ccomet drought\u201d for decades. The fact that we\u2019ve seen so many recently is an exception to a generational rule.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our records, we get a nice, bright comet every decade or so,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s when you can expect one, historically. But we\u2019ve had a big drought of comets in the last decade.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halley\u2019s Comet last passed Earth on Feb. 9, 1986. The comet\u00a0reached its perihelion<\/a>, the furthest point of its orbit, on Dec. 8, 2023.<\/p>\n

The comet is currently hurtling back toward Earth, but it\u2019ll take 37 years for it to get here. According to Gilbraith, that might be the next best comet that\u2019ll be easily visible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cool-looking comets have to be in our neighborhood and pretty close to the sun at the same time for us to see them,\u201d he said. \u201cMost of those comets are currently on the far side of the sun, or way out by Mars or Jupiter. They’re just not really that bright and impressive to us now.\u201d<\/p>\n

What, When, Where<\/p>\n

Wyoming\u2019s view of Comet SWAN isn\u2019t great at the moment, but it should still be visible, close to Mars, with a telescope, binoculars, or a camera with a long exposure. It will pass through the constellation Libra on Sept. 28, and move into Scorpius by Oct. 10<\/p>\n

One of the best times to see any comet is when it makes its closest approach to Earth. Comet SWAN will reach that point on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll nearly be a new moon that night,\u201d Gilbraith said. \u201cIf you\u2019re in a clear dark spot, you might catch it above the constellation Sagittarius, near the Milky Way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comet\u2019s tail probably won\u2019t be five moons long by that point, as it\u2019ll be further from the sun. Its stellar magnitude is anticipated to be around 5.8, just at the threshold of what\u2019s visible to the naked eye.<\/p>\n

Comet SWAN won\u2019t hold a candle to Halley\u2019s Comet, but you don\u2019t see a comet every night. Gilbraith thinks Comet SWAN is worth a look, if only because there might not be another visible comet until Halley\u2019s Comet gets back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the naked eye goes, the beautiful comets that put on a spectacular show in the night sky are still a once-in-a-decade occurrence,\u201d he said. \u201cThere’s lots of fun stuff to look at in the night sky with binoculars, and while you’re scanning around, you might spot this little comet with a tail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a newly-discovered comet streaking across the night sky, and any Wyomingite with a good pair of binoculars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-182790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}