A long-tailed comet has been spotted close to the sun, and some astronomers are predicting it could be seen with the naked eye in mid-October — just as another comet is forecast to do the same. It could mean two bright comets will be visible in the night sky at the same time, on the peak night of a meteor shower.
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), or SWAN R2 for short, was discovered on Sept. 12 by NASA's orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory, whose Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) instrument is used to find comets close to the sun. The previously unknown comet was found in SWAN's images by Vladimir Bezugly, a Ukrainian amateur astronomer, according to Universe Today, and it was initially called SWAN25B. Three days later, the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center classified the object as a comet and renamed it C/2025 R2 (SWAN).
