Bengaluru residents were treated to a fleeting celestial spectacle on Saturday evening when a faint green comet, C/2025 A6 (Lemmon), appeared above the city’s western skyline. The event offered a rare opportunity to spot a visitor from the outer reaches of the Solar System, even amid the city’s light pollution.
Several Bengaluru residents shared visuals of the comet on social media, capturing it’s glowing green coma, the luminous envelope of gas surrounding its icy core, and a faint dust tail that lingered only for a few minutes before disappearing below the horizon.
“I'm so glad that i witnessed Comet today in the sky @ #Bengaluru,” a user wrote.
“Noticed something in the sky today morning. #Bengaluru #NammaBengaluru,” another post stated.
Comet Lemmon, first identified in January 2025 by astronomers at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, has been gradually brightening as it draws nearer to the Sun. It remains visible to observers in the Northern Hemisphere using binoculars, though its intensity fluctuates as solar heat causes jets of gas and dust to erupt from its surface, a process known as outgassing, explained a report on The Hindu.
According to researchers, the comet’s distinctive emerald hue isn’t reflected sunlight but a glow produced when diatomic carbon (C2) molecules in the coma fluoresce under ultraviolet radiation. Since this gas disintegrates quickly, the comet’s tail lacks the same green tint, the reprot said.
Capturing such an image from within Bengaluru, where bright city lights often obscure the night sky, is no easy feat.