The South Australian Museum is investigating reports of a meteorite striking a Tesla Model Y north of Port Germein, South Australia, on October 19, 2025, in what may be the first confirmed meteorite impact on a moving vehicle worldwide.
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 smoldering carbon-composite object discovered near Newman, Western Australia, on October 18, 2025, is believed to be part of a Chinese Jielong 3 rocket that re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
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.
Spectroscopic observations with the Keck II telescope in Hawaii revealed distinct nickel and cyanide emissions surrounding the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, extending several hundred kilometers from its nucleus. The data, presented by Hoogendam et al. (2025) and summarized by astrophysicist Avi Loeb, show an anomalous concentration of nickel and an absence of iron lines—behavior unseen in known comets. These results, together with earlier Hubble images showing an anti-tail oriented toward the Sun, further reinforce the object’s unusual nature.
A newly discovered asteroid designated 2025 TP2 will make a close approach to Earth at 20:08 UTC on October 15, 2025, passing at just of 0.25 lunar distances.
ESA is preparing the second targeted atmospheric reentry of its long-running Cluster mission, with the spacecraft Rumba expected to descend into Earth’s atmosphere over a remote region of the South Pacific Ocean on October 22, 2025. The maneuver will follow the first controlled reentry of Salsa in September 2024 and continues ESA’s program to end the 24-year mission through precise, safe disposal of each satellite.
A very bright fireball was seen streaking over the skies of Dargaville, New Zealand, at 15:12 UTC on October 1, 2025.
