Comet C/2025 R3 has passed the Sun and will be ejected from the solar system

An exceptionally beautiful spectacle has been visible over the past three days in images from the LASCO telescope: Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) leisurely passed between the Earth and the Sun, almost exactly between them, at a distance of 75 million km from Earth. Discovered last September (previously unknown), the comet likely originated from the so-called Oort Cloud—a vast collection of comets, asteroids (and possibly minor planets) located approximately one light-year from Earth but nonetheless part of the Solar System. 

The comet is the brightest of the approximately 100 cometary bodies currently visible in the sky (most of these bodies are visible only with very large telescopes at the limits of sensitivity). The object will remain at the top of the charts for at least another month, all the while moving away from Earth. The comet's future fate is both tragic and inspiring. Calculations show that the Sun is ejecting a comet from the Solar System—its trajectory has been broken during its passage, and the object is passing by Earth and the Sun for the last time. Tens of millions of years of emptiness lie ahead, but somewhere on the horizon, encounters with other suns and other stellar systems are possible, even almost certain. 

On Earth, the dead comet season is approaching. Two bright bodies with contrasting fates—comet C/2026 A1, which perished within the Sun, and, conversely, comet C/2025 R3, which has forever escaped its embrace—provided a bright start to the year, which is now giving way to a months-long void. None of the comets already visible in the sky are capable of achieving a luminosity comparable to these bodies. All that remains is to wait for new guests.