Technologies

Catch These Rare Comets Zooming Past Earth This October

The Lemmon comet won’t return for another 1,300 years.

A pair of once-in-a-lifetime comets will rocket through our skies this October. It’s a rare treat for skywatchers, as they won’t be back again for hundreds of years.

The comets — C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and C/2025 R2 (SWAN) — look similar from our perspective. You can spot these green gaseous globes and their streaming tails now. But the comets will be even easier to see later this month.

SWAN will shine the brightest around Oct. 20, NBC News reports. Just a day later, on Oct. 21, Lemmon will make its peak showing in the dark sky.

If you want to witness these comets shooting past Earth, the coming weeks will be the best time. There won’t be another chance; the next time SWAN will come by again will be in 650 to 700 years, and Lemmon won’t return for another 1,300 years, CNN reports.

Comets are known to buck even the most careful predictions, but wary observers might catch these rare spectacles in October from their backyards in the pre-dawn morning or night sky.

New comets on the scene

Lemmon and SWAN were both discovered in 2025. Lemmon was discovered on Jan. 3 in Arizona by the Mount Lemmon Survey — using a 60-inch telescope installed on Mt. Lemmon to find celestial objects — which lent the comet its name.

«Current models are showing the comet will likely peak between 3.5 and 4.5 magnitudes when it is nearest to Earth on October 21, which is dimmer than what they showed last week,» Saint Louis Science Center wrote in an October update. «This is still bright enough that it could become naked-eye visible from light-polluted locations.»

A Ukrainian amateur astronomer named Vladimir Bezugly discovered the SWAN comet on Sept. 11 while he was looking through images captured by SWAN, a science instrument called Solar Wind ANisotropies, which is installed on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory in space.

«It was an easy comet for detection due to sufficient brightness in the (ultraviolet) band and location in the SWAN images, exactly in its center,» Bezugly told Universe Today. He also noted it’s the 20th official SWAN comet so far.

How to see Lemmon and SWAN this October

The darker the night sky, the easier it will be to see comets, moons, planets and stars. If you live in a city, bundle up and take an evening skygazing trip to the country where there’s less light pollution, with blankets, chairs and something warm to drink.

It takes a while for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Find a comfortable spot where you can stay still and gaze up. The comets might be bright enough to see without aid, but NASA recommends binoculars as a great entry-level stargazing tool.

Telescopes are one of the best ways to skygaze, and you might be able to find one to use or rent at your local library or university. But modern telescopes can also be fairly affordable.

Smartphone apps can also be helpful when trying to identify celestial phenomena and where to find them. Check out our list of stargazing apps for a few recommendations.

A sky full of wonders

Aside from the newly discovered comets, skywatchers have a few other cosmic treats to enjoy this month.

The Orionids meteor shower — when Earth travels through the massive tail of Halley’s Comet — began earlier this month, but you’ll be able to see the meteors through the beginning of November.

The next supermoon, known as the beaver moon, will take place on Nov. 5.

Technologies

Wisconsin Reverses Decision to Ban VPNs in Age-Verification Bill

The law would have required websites to block VPN users from accessing «harmful material.»

Following a wave of criticism, Wisconsin lawmakers have decided not to include a ban on VPN services in their age-verification law, making its way through the state legislature.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 130 (and its sister Assembly Bill 105), introduced in March 2025, aims to prohibit businesses from «publishing or distributing material harmful to minors» unless there is a reasonable «method to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.»

One provision would have required businesses to bar people from accessing their sites via «a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.»

A VPN lets you access the internet via an encrypted connection, enabling you to bypass firewalls and unblock geographically restricted websites and streaming content. While using a VPN, your IP address and physical location are masked, and your internet service provider doesn’t know which websites you visit.

Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard moved to delete that provision in the legislation, thereby releasing VPNs from any liability. The state assembly agreed to remove the VPN ban, and the bill now awaits Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s signature.

Rindala Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the digital freedom nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Wisconsin’s U-turn is «great news.»

«This shows the power of public advocacy and pushback,» Alajaji says. «Politicians heard the VPN users who shared their worries and fears, and the experts who explained how the ban wouldn’t work.»

Earlier this week, the EFF had written an open letter arguing that the draft laws did not «meaningfully advance the goal of keeping young people safe online.» The EFF said that blocking VPNs would harm many groups that rely on that software for private and secure internet connections, including «businesses, universities, journalists and ordinary citizens,» and that «many law enforcement professionals, veterans and small business owners rely on VPNs to safely use the internet.»

VPNs can also help you get around age-verification laws — for instance, if you live in a state or country that requires age verification to access certain material, you can use a VPN to make it look like you live elsewhere, thereby gaining access to that material. As age-restriction laws increase around the US, VPN use has also increased. However, many people are using free VPNs, which are fertile ground for cybercriminals.

In its letter to Wisconsin lawmakers prior to the reversal, the EFF argued that it is «unworkable» to require websites to block VPN users from accessing adult content. The EFF said such sites cannot «reliably determine» where a VPN customer lives — it could be any US state or even other countries.

«As a result, covered websites would face an impossible choice: either block all VPN users everywhere, disrupting access for millions of people nationwide, or cease offering services in Wisconsin altogether,» the EFF wrote.

Wisconsin is not the only state to consider VPN bans to prevent access to adult material. Last year, Michigan introduced the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act, which would ban all use of VPNs. If passed, it would force ISPs to detect and block VPN usage and also ban the sale of VPNs in the state. Fines could reach $500,000.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 21 #720

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Feb. 21, No. 720.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle might be easy for those who pursue a certain hobby. Some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: The beer necessities.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Cheers!

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

MALE, TREAT, STEAM, TEAM, MOVE, LOVE, ROVE, ROVER, SPEAR, PEAR

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

HOPS, WATER, MALT, YEAST, BARLEY, SUGAR, WHEAT, FLAVOR

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is HOMEBREW. To find it, start with the H that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for Feb. 21, #986

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 21 #986.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features another of those purple categories where you need to look for hidden words inside of other words. It can be a real stumper. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Rookies don’t have this.

Green group hint: Call the roll.

Blue group hint: How’d you do today?

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom, but with a twist.