'Like a mermaid swimming through a sea of auroras': ISS astronauts photograph 2 comets dancing above the northern lights

Astronauts orbiting Earth recently photographed not one but two comets while an aurora show danced below them.

The International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 73 crew took several pictures of comets Lemmon (C/2025 A6) and SWAN (C/2025 R2) in recent weeks that were just posted to NASA's website and social media pages after the end of the long government shutdown.

"Comets Lemmon and SWAN soar millions of miles away from Earth, beaming with auroras and airglow, in these celestial images from the orbital outpost captured in October," NASA officials wrote on the ISS X feed on Wednesday (Nov. 18).

Comets are small bodies made of ice and dust; when they approach our sun, radiation pressure and heat give them spectacular tails. Auroras are light shows that happen when charged particles from th