10 times the sky amazed us in 2025
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A multitude of comets, a total Blood Moon eclipse and impressive Northern Lights were just three of the skygazing highlights in 2025. Here’s how they unfolded. | Credit: Credit: LR, J. Winsky & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab), NASA AWESOME Mission, NASA/Don Pettit and Babak Tafreshi via X, Josh Dury
What was your skywatching highlight in 2025? A comet that has become visible to the naked eye? Mars disappears behind the Moon? Or did you catch a glimpse of a total Blood Moon eclipse and finally see the Northern Lights?
Here’s what happened in the sky in 2025, in spectacular images.
1. A Wolf Moon “eats” Mars
Mars emerges from a lunar occultation from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona on January 13, 2025. (Image credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Winsky & A. Sorensen | Credit: J. Winsky & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)
March faces strong opposition Earththe sky only once every 26 months. But just before its big day on January 15, it caught the attention of skywatchers when it passed the moon. North America had a front-row seat to the occultation of the Red Planet by the full Wolf Moon, which only occurs once every 14 years from a specific location on Earth’s surface.
Learn more: Mars hides behind the full Wolf Moon in stunning photos from around the world
2. A “great comet” appears
Comet C/2024 G3 (Atlas) appears in the sky above a rural area near Firmat, Argentina on January 20, 2025. | Credit: Patricio Murphy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
If you don’t remember the “great comet” of 2025, it’s probably because you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. Around mid-to-late January, Comet 2024 G3 (ATLAS) brushed past the sun before giving birth to a shiny and structured tail which delighted astrophotographers south of the equator. THE comet even became bright enough to be visible to the naked eye during the day.
Learn more: Why comet G3 (ATLAS) will be “remembered as the great comet of 2025” (photos)
3. “Blue Ghost” lands on the moon
Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost 1 mission landed on the moon on March 2, 2025. | Credit: Firefly Aerospace
Following the apex launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the 300-mile-wide (500-kilometer) Mare Crisium Basin on the Moon in early March, becoming the second private spacecraft of all time land softly on the moon. The company shared a spectacular video showing Blue Ghost’s spectacular descent and landing, complete with its own long lunar shadow.
Learn more: Land on the moon with the private Blue Ghost lander in this incredible video
4. A star trail is visible from orbit
NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured this long exposure view showing Earth and stars as intense streaks over time, as seen from the International Space Station. | Credit: NASA/Don Pettit and Babak Tafreshi via
Between September 2024 and April 2025, NASA astronaut Don Pettit, famous for his pioneering work in astrophotography from orbit, conducted his third mission to the ground. International Space Station. In collaboration with the astrophotographer Babak Tafreshi of the World at night In the field, Pettit took this art form to another level, capturing dozens of fascinating star trails.
Learn more: Astronaut Takes Stunning Journey Above Earth Under Star Trails: Space Photo of the Day
5. A total Blood Moon eclipse captivates skywatchers
NOIRLab Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek captured a total lunar eclipse from the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. | Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Horálek (Opava Institute of Physics)
The first total lunar eclipse in three years, March 13-14, 2025, delighted skywatchers, when a full Worm Moon slipped through Earth’s central shadow in space for 65 minutes, making the lunar surface appear orange-red from our perspective on Earth. The event, visible since the night of the Earth, was captured with a moon bow of Kentucky and with the Milky Way of Chile. Another lunar eclipse on September 7-8 scared some spectacular photosincluding one took control of the White Desert of Egypt.
Learn more: Total Lunar Eclipse March 2025: Best Photos of the “Bloodworm Moon”
6. Vapor tracers appear inside auroras
Vapor tracers illuminate the atmosphere above the Arctic Ocean, as seen from Utqiagvik, Alaska, March 25, 2025. | Credit: AWESOME Mission
Just as an aurora substorm erupted, two NASA sounding rockets ready to launch at the Poker Flat research site in Alaska suddenly rose skyward, releasing colorful vapor tracers into the aurora borealis, or northern lights. As part of the AWESOME mission, vapor tracers were imaged using cameras in northern Alaska to track winds, particle flows and magnetic changes during the explosion.
Learn more: NASA Launches Rockets At Auroras, Creating Breathtaking Lights In Alaska Skies (Photos)
7. The Perseids explode in the moonlight
A meteor streaks across the sky over Spruce Knob, West Virginia, on August 3, 2025. | Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls
It may be the Northern Hemisphere’s favorite annual meteor shower, but the Perseids weren’t a classic in 2025, as they were marred by an 84% lit crescent moon. However, before the peak night of Perseid meteor shower on August 12 and 13, there was a short window of darkness, during which a few bright lights meteors were seen before dawn. About 10 days before peak night, NASA photographer Bill Ingalls took this long exposure of a Perseid meteor at Spruce Knob, West Virginia.
Learn more: The 2025 Perseid meteor shower outshines the Moon to provide a spectacular show (photos)
8. An interstellar comet has a tail
A deep image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS taken by the Gemini South telescope in Chile. | Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist. Image processing: J. Miller and M. Rodriguez (Gemini International Observatory/NSF NOIRLab)/TA Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF NOIRLab)/M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab).
For comet hunters, 2025 was a landmark year, mainly because it saw the discovery of the third interstellar object to visit our solar system. Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it was called, followed in the wake of ‘Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. In late August, astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile spotted the tail of the interstellar intruder.
Learn more: Scientists Capture Interstellar Invading Comet 3I/ATLAS Growing a Tail
9. The solar maximum continues to produce
The great dawn of June 1, 2025. | Credit: VW Photos / Getty Images
After an incredible 2024, it was likely that 2025 would see significant geomagnetic activity, thanks to solar maximumthe peak of 11 years solar cycle. Observers in the right place, at the right time April 14-15, June 1, June 17 And September 2 (and many other dates) experienced spectacular auroras as G4 geomagnetic storms produced auroras at low latitudes.
Learn more: Severe G4 geomagnetic storm triggers northern lights across the United States and beyond (photos)
10. Comet Lemmon matures
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) with a bright green coma and visible tail as seen from Malaga, Spain, October 1, 2025. | Credit: Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images
What are the chances that a naked-eye comet will become visible on the same night as the summit of the Orionid meteor shower? Although it was only on the cusp of naked-eye visibility – and was only visible to astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere – Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) put on a show in mid-to-late October. A surprise companion, comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), appeared in telescope images on September 10. But even though she was initially bright, she was never as bright as Lemmon.
Learn more: Astrophotographers capture dazzling new views of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) as it brightens for October skies
