Sky & Telescope June 2025 Magazine

The Ghost Comet, the Kuiper Belt, and Kosovo’s New Observatory

In the June 2025 issue of Sky & Telescope, we’re following the path Comet ATLAS (C/2024 G3) took around the Sun with incredible images from our readers. Long before this comet shot past Earth, it passed through the Kuiper Belt, the frigid home of most of the known dwarf planets such as Pluto and Eris. We review what we’ve learned about this far-off icy plain. Pluto and Eris might seem like distant relatives of our solar system, but this month we feature some binary stars in long-distance relationships that put the Sun’s gravitational grasp on the Kuiper Belt to shame. Finally, Editor in Chief Diana Hannikainen covers the grand opening of Kosovo’s first national observatory and planetarium.