Overview
- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope finds the coma is roughly 95% carbon dioxide and about 5% water, with little carbon monoxide detected.
- The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detects hydroxyl, indicating water loss of about 40 kilograms per second at a distance where most comets are inactive.
- Spectroscopy from the Very Large Telescope and Keck shows unusually strong atomic nickel with little accompanying iron, concentrated near the nucleus.
- Gemini South imaging documents the development of an anti-tail as the comet approaches perihelion.
- Separately, C/2025 R2 (SWAN) and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) are forecast to be visible in the Northern Hemisphere after sunset in the coming days, with SWAN near Monday and Lemmon near Tuesday, likely binocular targets through late October during the Orionids and a dark new-moon sky.