Sky Candy: Here Comes the Sun

BIG damn star. Or ex-star. Or something. Honestly I don't think anyone is quite sure how super-massive black holes got there. But they are big.

By the way, Erika is about the best astrophysics science account I've found. You should follow her.

New observations from the @ehtelescope have revealed that the polarization signature, how light is aligned by magnetic fields, around the supermassive black hole M87* is not static, but changes in surprising ways over time.

Between 2017 and 2021, the magnetic field, as traced… pic.twitter.com/hbbzgwOz4r

— Erika  (@ExploreCosmos_) September 16, 2025

Betelgeuse is much smaller. But big enough.

🚨You're looking at Betelgeuse, a star 650 light years away from us... and it might not exist anymore 🌟 pic.twitter.com/WfvAUINWxx

— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) September 10, 2025

There is other interesting stuff happening too. Here's a new comet that at least has the potential to be quite a show.

A new comet, recently discovered, with its perihelion on September 12, 2025. The tail is truly impressive - its length is at least 5 degrees!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is C/2025 R2 (SWAN)!

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)
2025 Sep. 14.99 UT m1=6.9: Dia.=&3.0' Tail=5 deg in PA 116 deg...… pic.twitter.com/PCIIHp0uHc

— 🇺🇦Taras Prystavski🇺🇦 (@prystavski) September 15, 2025

Art for arts sake.

pic.twitter.com/tGjNMFZfoc

— John Kraus (@johnkrausphotos) September 10, 2025

Is there life on Mars? Or was there? My prediction, which I may never see tested, is that if there was life on Mars, there still is.

Sapphire Canyon, a Martian sample collected by our Perseverance rover, could preserve evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet. Here's what we've learned after a year of scientific scrutiny: https://t.co/Ciohk9ly8k pic.twitter.com/B7aYV0KH1F

— NASA (@NASA) September 10, 2025

A new view of the recent lunar eclipse. I'm a little surprised that there are no windows on the ISS looking up. Someone should do something about that.

My view from the @Space_Station of yesterday’s lunar eclipse. It’s a challenge to catch the moon up here – we don’t have any up-facing windows, so we can only see the moon for a few minutes between moonrise and moonset before it disappears above the ISS or below the horizon.… pic.twitter.com/gVU6DOhfCK

— Zena Cardman (@zenanaut) September 8, 2025

You need to have a sense of proportion.

I added the moon to scale to my latest 200-hour deep sky photo to really drive home the scale of these objects in the sky. If these things were brighter, you wouldn’t need a telescope to see them. Our skies are incredibly full. pic.twitter.com/DpoDUshI81

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) September 12, 2025

Go get your tickets.

Artemis II is launching in early 2026. You coming with?

Now you can. Submissions are open to fly your name around the Moon.

Your name will be recorded on a memory card that will be stowed inside the Orion spacecraft. Sign up here: https://t.co/5nu5GdtPvo pic.twitter.com/ZvB1Mf4oL5

— NASA (@NASA) September 9, 2025

Here's mine.

And to close it out, here comes the Sun.

I traveled to Florida this past week with a specific goal: To capture a rocket launch in front of our sun.

I succeeded, twice.

This is one of the shots from this trip, but not my favorite. I captured one that is a bit mind-bending I'll be sharing as soon as I can. pic.twitter.com/zS99fGwFbC

— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) September 6, 2025

And that does it for the week. While I'm here, let me plug my review of Sarah Hoyt's new book in three parts  — not a trilogy —No Man's Land: The Chronicles of Lost Elly.  I recommend it.

Come back next week, and keep your eyes open for a post on new music I think is under-appreciated. It will be a VIP article, so tell all your friends to sign up.