Comet SWAN shines with the Pillars of Creation in breathtaking deep space photo

passed in front of the Eagle Nebula and the iconic Pillars of Creation, from his home in the Chilean Atacama Desert on the night of Oct. 17 earlier this year.

The deep-space vista reveals the glowing green coma of comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), a little over a month after its closest approach to the sun on Sept. 12, as it journeyed through the stars of the constellation Serpens.

Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN)'s backdrop is dominated by the Eagle Nebula — a vast cosmic structure of dust and hydrogen-rich gas that glows with its own light, having been ionized by the radiation emitted by its population of energetic young stars.

The nebula gets its name from its resemblance to a cosmic bird of prey and is most famous for playing host to the Pillars of Creation — a collection of stunning radiation-sculpted columns made of interstellar dust and gas. The formation has been immortalized in images captured by both the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, along with countless others. Though small, the Pillars of Creation can be spotted nestled in the glowing, star-studded heart of the Eagle Nebula, to the left of C/2025 R2 (SWAN)'s glowing coma in Gasparri's image.

Gasparri captured the scene over the course of 40 X 120-second exposures using a 130 mm Newtonian reflector telescope in the skies over the Atacama Desert, close to the Chilean city of Copiapó, where he works as a professional astronomer. "It was also an amazing sight through the eyepiece, with its characteristic green coma drifting across one of the most observed nebulae in the sky," Gasparri told Space.com in an email.

C/2025 R2 (SWAN) was discovered by Ukrainian astronomer Vladimir Bezgly on Sept. 10, 2025, in data collected by the Solar and Heliospheric Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera on NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) spacecraft. The comet is now heading out towards the far reaches of the solar system, having survived its close approach with the sun on Sept. 12 and won't return for approximately 1,400 years.

Ensure that you're prepared to view the next cometary visitor or night sky event by perusing our roundups of the best telescopes and binoculars for exploring the night sky. If you're an astrophotographer looking to upgrade your gear, then you may also want to read our picks of the top cameras and lenses for capturing the majesty of the post-sunset realm!

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