Comet and Asteroids

[Ennio]

According to this video by Stefan Burns, its not only 3I/ATLAS and C/2025SWAN, but ALSO 3 other comets in the solar system right now. Thinking that this was rather extraordinary, I asked Grok about it.

Its answer:

"Yes, there is an unusually high level of cometary activity in our solar system right now, particularly in October 2025, with at least three to five bright comets observable from Earth—far exceeding the typical frequency of such events. On average, only about one bright, naked-eye or binocular-visible comet appears every 2.5 years, while great comets (exceptionally bright ones) occur roughly once per decade. This year's cluster stands out due to multiple discoveries in 2025 reaching peak visibility simultaneously, including a rare interstellar visitor.

Key Active Comets Visible Now​

Here's a summary of the most notable ones observable in early October 2025 (brightness estimates in apparent magnitude; lower numbers are brighter):

This "month of comets" coincides with meteor showers like the Orionids (peaking Oct. 21), adding to the spectacle. The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is especially noteworthy, as only two others (1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov) have been confirmed before. For real-time viewing tips, check sites like Heavens-Above or EarthSky."

****

In his video, Burns puts the above 'spectacle' in the context of the comets' interactions with solar wind, charged particles, geomagnetic storms and the higher likelihood of high seismic activity on Earth; including the greater possibility of megaquakes, among other things.

But what really struck me is how the cosmic developments mentioned above - seem to so well coincide with the developments down here. And by that I mean the ramping up not only of belligerent rhetoric against Russia, but also the plans and preparations that seem in place by the crazies in the EU/NATO to actually further induce Russia into some kind of expanded war. And if that isn't enough Israel, with the help of the US, appears to be on the verge of attacking Iran once again.

Yes, there are geopolitical agendas that are afoot that are very real, but it all makes you wonder how much these conflicts are, at some level, also being initiated, directed and timed to coincide with what really seems to be some rather interesting celestial events ala Victor Clube's famous statement. I mean, have we yet seen a better example of the below, than right now?

Cynics … would say that we do not need the celestial threat to disguise Cold War intentions; rather we need the Cold War to disguise celestial intentions!

 

[mabar]

4/5 discovered on 2025, wow!

 

[Gaby]

Well, the examples that Pierre used in his book "Earth Changes" included 17 visible comets in November 2013 with a small telescope, of which 5 could be seen either with binoculars or with the naked eye. These comets included a couple with very eccentric orbits, Lovejoy with an estimated orbit of over 10000 years. These all discharged the solar capacitor quite nicely. There were EIGHT X flares between October 25th and November 19th 2013, despite the average of 0.5 X flares per month the preceding 2 years.

The comets currently flying around are definitely discharging the solar capacitor, but the last X flare was in June 2025. The recent typhoon was probably related. We'll see if the current solar cycle (SC25) follows the newly predicted path.

It definitely has more action. See an updated chart here:

 

[SasaM]

Well, the examples that Pierre used in his book "Earth Changes" included 17 visible comets in November 2013 with a small telescope, of which 5 could be seen either with binoculars or with the naked eye. These comets included a couple with very eccentric orbits, Lovejoy with an estimated orbit of over 10000 years. These all discharged the solar capacitor quite nicely. There were EIGHT X flares between October 25th and November 19th 2013, despite the average of 0.5 X flares per month the preceding 2 years.

The comets currently flying around are definitely discharging the solar capacitor, but the last X flare was in June 2025. The recent typhoon was probably related. We'll see if the current solar cycle (SC25) follows the newly predicted path.

It definitely has more action. See an updated chart here:

View attachment 112477

Although there probably is a correlation between the number of comets zipping through the (inner) solar system and number of X class solar flares in that specific period of time, the observational data seem to indicate that comets alone are not the main factor in triggering strong solar flares.

This 'discrepancy' between the observations and Pierre's proposed hypothesis of solar capacitor discharge mechanism based on EU theory might have something to do with the 'assumption' that the solar capacitor is similar to 'ordinary' electrostatic capacitor, which it basically is not, as heliosphere is highly dynamic rotating system where everything in it is, if nothing else, at least permeated with a 'baseline' solar magnetic field. From this point alone, in periods when heliospheric magnetic field lines are configured in a manner to 'lead' the charge that might appear in the capacitor away from the capacitor's electrodes, or 'shadow' any potentially locally created charge disbalance in the same capacitor, even if a comet with highly eccentric orbit passes through the plane of the ecliptic, a triggered discharge, if it even happens, would be of significantly lower intensity than when different, more 'favorable' solar or heliospheric magnetic field configuration would have been present.

You said that there were eight X class solar flares in that period of more than 3 weeks in 2013 when there were 17 comets that could have been observed passing across the sky. According to that premise, how many comets should have been there, if they are the sole main reason behind the strong solar flares, to produce 12 X class flares in just 6 days in May 2024, from the same active region on the Sun's disc?

10 most powerful solar flares of 2024

The sun released over 50 X-class solar flares in 2024! Here we take a look at some of the best.

www.space.com

Last year 2024, "witnessed an astonishing total of 54 X-class solar flares—an all-time high since records began in 1996," with an overall average of more than 2 X class solar flares per week.

Record X-class solar flares surge; experts cite other factors | USA Solar Cell

X-class solar flares set records in 2024. Discover the surprising factors behind this phenomenon and what it means for us!

usasolarcell.com

I haven't followed exactly how many comets there were in total last year, and when in particular, so can't exclude the possibility that they were in fact actual triggers for all those flares, but going from memory what I remember mentioned on the Forum at the time about their rates of occurence, realistically assigned probability to that possibility would not be very high, or maybe even notable, not to say not really worth mentioning.

In adition, even within the same cycle of solar activity, SC24, considering recalibrated data (attached plot below), neither year 2013 was the record one nor those 8 flares from October 25th til November 19th were the highest 'local' surge in X class solar flares occurence.

Image taken from web article:

Are there more solar flares than expected during this solar cycle?

Solar Cycle 25 is approaching its peak, but how does it measure up to the previous Solar Cycle 24?

www.space.com

To bring this post closer to home, I'd just like to draw the attention to the 'fact' that current official descriptions of most main phenomena that could be associated with the discharge of the solar capacitor, observed on solar disc and in solar atmosphere, like prominences, flares, CMEs and even ordinary sunspots, all include in one way or another magnetic interactions and effects. Leaving open the possibility that those descriptions might not be the closest thing to actual truth, they still suggest that marginalization of the role magnetic fields as such might play in general dynamics in the universe, and in particular observed phenomena associated with the Sun, can potentionally create gaps in awareness and understanding of the true nature of our reality.

From Wikipedia page about solar flares:

Flares occur when accelerated charged particles, mainly electrons, interact with the plasma medium. Evidence suggests that the phenomenon of magnetic reconnection leads to this extreme acceleration of charged particles.[10] On the Sun, magnetic reconnection may happen on solar arcades—a type of prominence consisting of a series of closely occurring loops following magnetic lines of force.[11] These lines of force quickly reconnect into a lower arcade of loops leaving a helix of magnetic field unconnected to the rest of the arcade. The sudden release of energy in this reconnection is the origin of the particle acceleration. The unconnected magnetic helical field and the material that it contains may violently expand outwards forming a coronal mass ejection.[12] This also explains why solar flares typically erupt from active regions on the Sun where magnetic fields are much stronger.

Taking into account also the non-linearity, which seems to be an intrinsic ingredient of almost all true real interactions and dynamics, that usually transcends our linear 3-dim modern scientific viewpoint, considering magnetic fields only as byproducts of electrical currents or of charges in motion, seems to me like observing and seeing the worlds around us and within us with only one eye through its eyelid half closed.

FWIW.

 

[XPan]

There are always plenty of comets

Here is the homepage of Seiichi Yoshida, listing the brighter comets in our solar system. I have been visiting this page for many years, and it's always been a long list. There are also images of the comets, people have made across the world

Weekly Information about Bright Comets (2025 Sept. 27: North)

Current brighter comets (link makes weekly updates, i believe)

Weekly Information about Bright Comets - Back Numbers

In this link, you have back numbers of bright comets, going back to 1998

Visual Comets in the Future (Northern Hemisphere)

Visual Comets in the Future (Northern Hemisphere)

Visual Comets in the Future (Southern Hemisphere)

Visual Comets in the Future (Southern Hemisphere)

Seiichi Yoshida's Home Page

Main entrance of Seiichi Yoshida's homepage

 

[Ennio]

Well, the examples that Pierre used in his book "Earth Changes" included 17 visible comets in November 2013 with a small telescope, of which 5 could be seen either with binoculars or with the naked eye. These comets included a couple with very eccentric orbits, Lovejoy with an estimated orbit of over 10000 years. These all discharged the solar capacitor quite nicely. There were EIGHT X flares between October 25th and November 19th 2013, despite the average of 0.5 X flares per month the preceding 2 years.

Thanks for the added perspective. I had forgotten about 11/13.

There are always plenty of comets

Yes, it sure is an on-going phenomena. In retrospect, and largely because of all the attention 3I/ATLAS has drawn, I think that my, and our, awareness of it as a phenomena, has been greatly jump-started. So in one sense, at least for me, its a bit like seeing things anew. But in another sense, of course, all the massive public speculation about 3I/ATLAS, and the context in which its occurring, ie. other cosmic phenomena, the situation down here, etc. - makes it seem to take on a much wider significance. But what that significance is (or isn't), remains to be better understood.

 

[SasaM]

Last year 2024, "witnessed an astonishing total of 54 X-class solar flares—an all-time high since records began in 1996," with an overall average of more than 2 X class solar flares per week.

This is embarassing.
There are 52 weeks in a year and with 54 reported flares I somehow got an average of "more than 2 per week."

Maybe a good reminder to leave math, even as simple as in this example, to a time of the day when the mind is a bit more rested than at 3 AM on a smartphone.

 

[Gaby]

Would it? We'll have to wait and see.

Will Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) be the 'great comet' of 2026?

In late April 2026, a long-period comet will swing through the inner solar system. It will likely be visible with binoculars, and there's a small chance it could be seen with the naked eye.

www.space.com

The orbital path of Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) through the inner solar system. (Image credit: JPL Small-Body Database Lookup)

It would align between the Sun and Earth.

Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) an hour before sunrise on April 13, 2025, as seen from midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. (Image credit: Starry Night)

In late April 2026, a long-period comet will swing through the inner solar system. It will likely be visible with binoculars, and there's a small chance it could be seen with the naked eye.

Sounds like one of them with very elongated orbits, an external visitor.

After the excitement of three visible comets in 2025, another may put on a show in late April 2026. However, although the comet, known as C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS), could become bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, it could just as easily remain visible only through binoculars and telescopes.

In the wake of Comets C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and C/2025 R2 (SWAN) in October, Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) is due to reach perihelion — its closest point to the sun — on April 20, 2026. On that date, this icy visitor to the inner solar system will come within 47.4 million miles (76.3 million kilometers) of the sun.

That's between the orbits of Mercury and Venus, or between 29 million and 67 million miles (47 million to 108 million kilometers), on average. On April 27, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) will be at its closest point to Earth — within 44 million miles (70.8 million km) — and so will probably be at its brightest.

The brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable. Although Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) could prove to be the brightest comet of 2026, it's not known how bright it will get. Some predict it could reach magnitude 8, which is about the same brightness as Neptune — too faint to be seen with the naked eye but easy to spot in binoculars or a small telescope. Others predict Comet C/2025 R3 could reach a brightness of magnitude 2.5. That's comparable to the brightest stars in the famous W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia, which is easily visible with unaided eyes in a dark sky.

Comet R3's prospects of becoming a bright, easy-to-see nighttime object may be enhanced by a phenomenon called forward scattering. Because this comet will move between Earth and the sun, its tail will reflect and scatter a lot of sunlight in the direction of Earth — and into the eyes of observers — in late April 2026.

And this without mentioning electric interactions.

Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) will be at its best in the predawn sky in late April, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, and after sunset in early May for viewers in the Southern Hemisphere. It will reach perihelion in the constellation Pisces, just beneath the Great Square of Pegasus.

When Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) brightens in the night sky, there will likely be some interference from moonlight, but darkness will prevail close to perihelion. A new moon on April 17, 2026, bodes well for the comet's post-sunset perihelion on April 20. But at its closest point to Earth on April 27, it will likely be lost in the sun's glare.

Around April 13-15, the comet will be within the Great Square of Pegasus, around 15 degrees above the eastern horizon, an hour before sunrise, as viewed from mid-northern latitudes. There will be a close to a waning crescent moon for a few mornings.

Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) was discovered on Sept. 8, 2025, by Pan-STARRS, a pair of 1.8-meter (5.9 feet) reflector telescopes atop Haleakalā volcano in Hawaii. Pan-STARRS constantly takes wide images of the sky, and then software compares them with older images, flagging anything that moves. Follow-up observations using the 3.6-meter (11.8 feet) Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, on Sept. 17 helped astronomers calculate the comet's path.

After a few barren years in the wake of Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), six notable comets made their mark in 2024 and 2025. First, there was the "Devil Comet" 12P/Pons-Brooks" (also dubbed the "Mother of Dragons" comet) in April 2024. Then came Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) in October 2024 and the bright C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), the "New Year comet," which put on a great show for viewers in the Southern Hemisphere in January 2025. It was followed in mid-October by Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), which reached the cusp of naked-eye visibility and, to a lesser extent, Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN).

That's not to mention 3I/ATLAS, only the third interstellar object ever to visit the solar system, after 'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. 3I/ATLAS came closest to the sun on Oct. 29 during its trip through the solar system and then rapidly brightened, baffling scientists.

Not really, it did what it was expected to do from the point of view of the plasma discharge model. But yeah, it baffled.

Will Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) become a "great comet" in 2026? Only time will tell.

 

[Gaby]

The new fancy telescope in Chile, for planetary defense purposes, has made a few discoveries. At least, the ones that they would have us know.

Vera Rubin Observatory spots the fastest-spinning large asteroid ever found

2025 MN45 is 0.4 miles wide and completes one rotation every 1.88 minutes.

www.space.com

Vera Rubin Observatory spots the fastest-spinning large asteroid ever found

2025 MN45 is 0.4 miles wide and completes one rotation every 1.88 minutes.

A powerful new telescope in South America is already offering tantalizing hints of what it can do.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory began studying the heavens from a Chilean mountaintop last spring, and its "first light" images wowed astronomers and space fans alike when they were released in June.

That initial dataset included observations of nearly 2,000 newly discovered asteroids, and we got some exciting new details about this group on Wednesday (Jan. 7). A new study reveals that 19 of the asteroids are "superfast rotators," completing one spin in less than 2.2 hours — and one is the fastest-spinning big asteroid ever found.

Like all but one of the newfound superfast rotators, the record-setting space rock, called 2025 MN45, resides in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The object measures about 0.4 miles (710 meters) across and completes one rotation every 1.88 minutes, making it "the fastest-spinning asteroid with a diameter over 500 meters that astronomers have found," according to a statement released Wednesday by the U.S. National Science Foundation's NOIRLab. (The Rubin Observatory is a joint program of NOIRLab and the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.)

An asteroid's rotation rate can reveal key information about it. Extremely rapid spins, for example, may point to a violent collision that shattered a larger parent body. Rotation can also offer insight into an asteroid's internal structure and composition.

"Clearly, this asteroid must be made of material that has very high strength in order to keep it in one piece as it spins so rapidly," study leader Sarah Greenstreet, an NSF NOIRLab assistant astronomer and the head of the Rubin Observatory’s Solar System Science Collaboration’s Near-Earth Objects and Interstellar Objects working group, said in the same statement.

 

[SasaM]

The new fancy telescope in Chile, for planetary defense purposes, has made a few discoveries. At least, the ones that they would have us know.

Well, all images and data taken by Vera Rubin first go to NSA or some of its departments for checking if there are any 'sensitive' stuff there, like military satellites for example. Only after 72 hours, IIRC what a colleague working on that project told me last month when explicitly asked about that, as Persej wrote about this embargo some time last year on the Forum, possibly scrambled or cleaned images are returned back to Vera Rubin staff.

In reality, the NSA or whoever handles the raw images can remove from them whatever they deem that needs to be removed. Neither the PI of Vera Rubin (Croatian guy associated with University of Rijeka) nor anybody else from its scientific crew could do anything about that as Vera Rubin has been funded by US gov's resources and the embargo was non-negotiable requirement for its construction and operation. Of course, nobody of them is even nearly happy about that.

Unfortunately, me thinks that we won't be getting any important 'findings' from this observatory unless they serve the interests of the PTB.