Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) over Hawai‘i | Gemini North Telescope

Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) over Hawai‘i | Gemini North Telescope

Up against the vastness of our cosmos, the Comet C/2025 A6 (right), also known as Comet Lemmon, careens through the night sky above Gemini North on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai‘i. This image was captured using Gemini North’s Cloud Cameras on November 12, 2025. Gemini North is one half of the International Gemini Observatory, funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. 

Comet C/2025 A6 was discovered in January 2025 and made its closest approach to Earth in late October 2025. The day this photo was taken, the comet was about as bright as the planet Uranus and would have been visible with the naked eye from suburban settings. Researchers did not expect this comet to be so visible, but stargazers of all kinds have been pleasantly surprised by the appearance of our celestial visitor. Comet Lemmon will not return to Earth’s skies again for 1,350 years.

This image also features the starlight and dust of the Milky Way Galaxy (center-left) and a smattering of light pollution from nearby towns on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

Learn more about the Gemini North Telescope:

Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, the only state in the tropics, and one of the two U.S. states, along with Texas, that were internationally recognized sovereign countries before becoming U.S. states.

Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

Image Processing: M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab) & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab)

Release Date: Dec. 3, 2025

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