Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS brightened sharply and turned bluer as it passed perihelion on October 29 2025, according to a new preprint by Q. Zhang and K. Dattams and commentary by astrophysicist Avi Loeb.
Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1 ATLAS) will reach its perihelion distance of about 1.36 AU from the Sun on October 29, 2025, marking the midpoint of its one-time passage through the Solar System. The hyperbolic object will be unobservable from Earth during the event but will later pass within 97 million km (60 million miles) of Venus and 54 million km (34 million miles) of Jupiter on its way out of the system.
A bright green bolide, a natural meteoroid entering Earth’s atmosphere, illuminated the skies over Moscow, Russia, at around 00:30 UTC on October 27, 2025. The object produced several bright flashes and visible fragmentation as it moved across the sky, leaving a persistent trail. Analysis of multiple videos confirms its natural origin, distinguishing it from any satellite or rocket re-entry.
A G2 – Moderate geomagnetic storm on October 18, 2025, produced an extremely bright red SAR arc visible from the United States to northern Europe. The event showed an unusually efficient release of energy from Earth’s ring current system, challenging current understanding of how the planet’s magnetic field interacts with the atmosphere.
Forecast data indicate an early weakening and displacement of the stratospheric polar vortex over the Arctic in October 2025, as a developing high-pressure anomaly over Greenland interacts with the circulation earlier than usual, increasing the chances of colder air movement toward the mid-latitudes of North America and Europe.
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) will make its closest approach to Earth at a distance of 0.596 AU (about 89 million km / 55 million miles) on October 21, 2025, before reaching perihelion on November 8 at 0.529 AU (79 million km) from the Sun.
The deadly Enderlin tornado, which struck Ransom County, North Dakota, on June 20, 2025, has been upgraded by the National Weather Service (NWS) to an EF-5. This officially brought an end to the EF-5 drought, the longest period without an EF-5 tornado in the U.S. since records began in 1950.
Kronotsky volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, erupted at 03:50 UTC (15:50 LT) on October 4, 2025, ending a century of dormancy. The Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) reported an explosive eruption with an ash column reaching 9.2 km (30 180 feet) above sea level. Aviation Color Code was raised to Red. KVERT warns that additional ash emissions rising up to 15 km (49 200 feet) remain possible.
A newly-discovered asteroid designated 2025 TF made an extremely close approach to Earth at 00:49 UTC on October 1, 2025, reaching a nominal distance of 0.02 LD (0.00005 AU / 6 790 km / 4 220 miles) from Earth’s center — equivalent to about 419 km (260 miles) above the surface over Antarctica. At this distance, it is now classified as the second-closest asteroid flyby ever recorded.
The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS showed no measurable non-gravitational acceleration between May and September 2025, implying a nucleus mass above 33 billion tons and a diameter larger than 5 km (3 miles), according to a study co-authored by Harvard Professor Avi Loeb and published on September 24.
