Fast breathing and an elevated heart rate are often linked with rapid decision-making. Under pressure, people may become more cautious in an effort to avoid losses, whether they are making an investment, handling a tense workplace situation, or choosing a meal quickly. Slower breathing and a calmer cardiovascular state, by contrast, may encourage a more positive assessment of potential outcomes and make people more willing to take risks.

How Breathing Connects the Body and Brain

Decision-making has traditionally been viewed as a process centered mainly in the brain. The new research examined a broader possibility: that signals from other parts of the body can change brain activity and influence the choices people make.

The study was led by Prof. Soyoung Q Park in collaboration with researchers from institutions including the Neuroscience Research Center at Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, and the German Naval Institute of Maritime Medicine.

“Our decisions are rarely determined solely by external information. Rather, our judgment emerges from the interplay between cognitive processes and our current bodily state. It was previously unknown how the conscious regulation of our body, for example through targeted breathing, could actively control our decision-making process. We wanted to create a physiological shift using a slow breathing pattern to change the quality of our decisions,” explains Soyoung Q Park, head of the Department of Decision Neuroscience and Nutrition at DIfE, summarizing the research question.

Testing Whether Longer Exhales Change Decisions

The researchers studied 41 healthy participants while they made risky choices under carefully controlled breathing conditions. Participants followed visual breathing instructions and either breathed at their normal individual pace or slowed their breathing while extending the exhalation phase (2:8 inhale-exhale ratio).

As the participants completed a series of risk-related decisions, the research team measured several aspects of their physical and neurological responses. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to track brain activity, while breathing patterns, heart activity, skin conductance, and pupil responses were monitored at the same time.

This combination of measurements allowed the researchers to test whether extending the exhale did more than simply lower heart rate. They also wanted to determine whether the breathing pattern directly changed how the brain processed potential rewards.

Longer Exhalation Shifted Choices Toward Reward

The results showed that extended exhalation slowed heart rate and was associated with riskier choices. Importantly, the change appeared to come from greater attention to possible rewards rather than reduced concern about potential losses. Participants still responded to losses in a similar way.

The researchers also detected stronger activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the precuneus. These brain regions are involved in reward processing and in regulating the timing between heartbeats, a measure known as heart rate variability.

“Our study thus underscores the transformative role of breath-based interventions. The interplay between breathing and cardiac dynamics makes the brain more receptive to rewards,” explains lead author Wenhao Huang, interpreting the results.

What the Findings Could Mean for Breathing Techniques

The work adds to a growing field focused on body-brain communication and supports neurovisceral models, which propose that a person’s physical state can strongly shape cognitive processes.

Park explains: “Breathing techniques have accompanied humanity for millennia across various religions and cultures. With this study, we provide scientific proof that it is a reliable and targeted method capable of controlling our decisions.”

Because controlled breathing is simple, inexpensive, and relatively easy to learn, the researchers say it could have value as a tool for everyday self-regulation. It may also have potential as a supportive, non-pharmacological approach in clinical settings, particularly for conditions such as anxiety disorders or depression, which can involve disrupted autonomic regulation and altered responses to reward.

Could Breathing Influence Eating Behavior?

Future studies will need to determine whether the same effects appear in broader clinical populations, including people with overweight. The researchers are particularly interested in whether breathing techniques could influence food-related decisions, since eating behavior is strongly affected by both reward processing and a person’s physical state.

“Since dietary decisions are strongly influenced by reward assessment and physical state, targeted breath regulation could also play a role in consciously perceiving and more effectively managing eating behavior,” Park summarizes for future research activities.

This study was supported by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space [Grant 01GP2210C (DecEnt-Project), Grant 01EE2301E for the conceptual development of the German Center for Mental Health; Grant 82DZD03D03 (German Center for Diabetes Research)], the Ministry for Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg (MWFK). Ignacio Rebollo was supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) BRAINSTOM (grant agreement no. 101028203).

Iceberg calving is a normal part of the life cycle of outlet glaciers, but scientists monitor these events closely for clues about longer-term signs of instability. Petermann is one of Greenland’s largest marine-terminating glaciers and helps control the flow of ice from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the ocean. Because of that role, changes in its stability could have implications for sea level rise.

A Giant Ice Island Breaks From Petermann Glacier

The summer 2026 calving was first identified on August 4 by Adam Garbo, a doctoral student in glaciology at the University of Ottawa, using imagery from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 mission. Garbo and an international group of researchers have been relying on remote sensing to monitor Petermann Glacier and follow changes in its floating ice tongue.

According to the team, the large flat-topped iceberg, known as an “ice island,” measured just over 76 square kilometers (29 square miles) when it separated from the glacier. That made it the largest iceberg to break from Petermann since the 2012 event, which produced an ice island covering 130 square kilometers. Earlier major calving events occurred in 2008 (31 square kilometers) and 2010 (just over 250 square kilometers).

Scientists had actually been preparing for an even larger break. Garbo and his colleagues were watching one of several major rifts that appeared likely to eventually cut across the entire ice tongue. Instead, the glacier fractured along a different crack.

“What surprised us was that the calving instead followed a different fracture, producing a smaller ice island than we had originally anticipated,” Garbo said.

As of late August, two large rifts were still present. Researchers expect them to eventually release new ice islands measuring roughly 94 square kilometers and 84 square kilometers, although no one knows exactly when those breaks will occur.

The Iceberg Heads Toward Nares Strait

Glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nichols College has also been tracking the iceberg using imagery from NASA-USGS Landsat satellites. After separating from the glacier, the berg moved down Petermann Fjord toward Nares Strait at an average speed of about 3 kilometers per day during its first week.

It eventually approached the point where the fjord meets Nares Strait and collided with a small rocky outcrop called Joe Island (Joe Ø). The encounter was captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) aboard Landsat 9 on August 23 and August 24. A closer look at the August 24 scene is shown at the top of this article.

Joe Island sits near the entrance to Petermann Fjord, putting it directly in the path of many ice islands leaving the glacier. Such collisions can trigger the beginning of an iceberg’s breakup. One notable example occurred when a 2010 ice island struck Joe Island and split into two pieces.

Pelto noted that icebergs from Petermann are generally thinner and more fragile than those produced by Greenland glaciers such as Jakobshavn and Helheim. They are also much thinner than the enormous icebergs that break away from Antarctica.

A Collision That Failed to Break It Apart

Despite that fragility, the new Petermann ice island remained intact after striking Joe Island.

“We were certainly watching closely as it interacted with Joe Island and were impressed that it survived the interaction without further fragmentation,” Garbo said.

At the time it broke away, the ice island was estimated to be less than 150 meters thick. Winds and surface currents later carried it out of Petermann Fjord, while satellite observations showed it pivoting away from Joe Island and moving southwest through Nares Strait.

Its journey will gradually become more destructive. Tides, winds, ocean currents, and melting will continue weakening the iceberg until it eventually fractures into smaller pieces.

Where Greenland’s Ice Islands Can Go Next

Some thicker icebergs that break from tidewater glaciers without floating ice shelf extensions can scrape along the seabed or become grounded inside a fjord. Ice islands from Petermann may instead travel farther before running aground. Many have eventually become “grounded” near the coasts of Coburg and Baffin islands.

Garbo and his colleagues noted that Petermann ice islands and the fragments they produce can travel long distances through Arctic waters. Along the way, they can create hazards for ships, marine operations, and infrastructure.

At the same time, they play another role in the ocean. As the ice slowly melts, it releases freshwater into surrounding waters, carrying the influence of Greenland’s glaciers far beyond the fjord where the iceberg first broke free.

A new analysis from the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment has now uncovered a particularly intriguing event. Researchers recorded a single particle interaction that has proven difficult to explain using known background signals produced by ordinary matter.

The finding is not statistically strong enough to qualify as a discovery. Even so, researchers say it represents the most compelling potential dark matter signal LZ has reported so far.

A Giant Detector Nearly a Mile Underground

LZ is an international project involving 250 scientists and engineers from 39 institutions. The experiment is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and operates nearly one mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota.

At the heart of the detector are 10 tonnes of extremely pure liquid xenon. The instrument was designed primarily to search for WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles, one of the leading candidates proposed to explain dark matter.

The new results were presented during a scientific talk at the 2026 TeV Particle Astrophysics conference in Japan. The paper will also be posted to arXiv and submitted to Physical Review Letters.

“We’re very intrigued to see this event in the data, in the region where we expect dark matter to show up and the competing backgrounds are very low,” said Rick Gaitskell, a professor at Brown University and the spokesperson for LZ. “With only one event, we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We are not claiming to have seen dark matter. But we have seen something interesting that we want to share with the scientific community for their input.”

Searching a New Part of the Data

The LZ collaboration examines its experimental results in batches. For this latest study, scientists analyzed 220 live days of observations gathered between March 2023 and April 2024.

Researchers had previously searched the same dataset for very faint signatures associated with the simplest forms of WIMP interactions. This time, they expanded the search to include a wider variety of possible WIMP interactions capable of depositing larger amounts of energy inside the detector.

LZ is especially sensitive to events of this kind, while its design also helps scientists reduce the chances of mistaking ordinary particle interactions for dark matter.

“This was a detailed study in a region we hadn’t explored within this dataset, and we spent months of additional effort to understand all the possible causes of background events,” said Sam Eriksen, a senior research associate at the University of Bristol in the U.K. and lead author of the study. “We understand our detector and the backgrounds so well that even a single outstanding event, like the one we found, is important. We expect dark matter events to be extremely rare, so only a handful could mark the first detection of WIMP dark matter.”

What the Mysterious Event Could Mean

If dark matter really did produce the unusual signal, the responsible WIMP would probably have a mass of at least 200 GeV/c2 (gigaelectronvolts). That would make it more than 200 times as massive as a proton.

Such a result would also point toward a particular type of interaction between WIMPs and ordinary matter that goes beyond the simplest models typically considered in dark matter searches.

There is an important reason scientists are remaining cautious. Particle physics generally requires a result to reach “5-sigma” statistical significance before it is considered a discovery. The new LZ finding currently sits at 2.6 sigma.

According to the researchers, that corresponds to roughly a 0.5% chance that the unusual event could be produced by known background sources.

More observations will be crucial. As LZ collects additional data, scientists will be able to see whether the statistical significance of the event increases or whether the apparent signal eventually disappears.

LZ has already assembled the world’s largest dataset for dark matter searches and will continue gathering WIMP data at SURF, giving researchers much stronger statistics in the future.

How LZ Separates Dark Matter From Background Noise

The experiment searches for dark matter by watching for characteristic flashes of light created when particles deposit energy inside the detector.

The challenge is that ordinary matter can also produce particle interactions. LZ therefore uses several layers of protection and analysis to identify these background events and prevent them from being mistaken for dark matter.

Its underground location provides one of the first defenses. Nearly a mile of rock above the experiment blocks much of the cosmic ray radiation arriving from space. A surrounding water tank and additional outer detectors help shield the central detector from background neutrons.

Researchers also use sophisticated computational techniques to distinguish different kinds of particle interactions and reject events that imitate the signatures expected from dark matter.

The unusual event has attracted particular attention because, so far, it has not revealed the kinds of problems scientists normally find when they investigate an outlier more closely.

“Outlier events in the data are not unexpected, but they usually stand out as a background of some kind when you look at them deeper,” said Aaron Manalaysay, a physicist at Berkeley Lab and the chair of LZ’s Institutional Board. “This is the first example in any experiment I’ve worked on of an outlier that appears valid in every way. Of course, we’re still twisting our brains trying to think if there’s a rare background mechanism we could’ve missed, but it’s thrilling to wonder if this could be the first hint of a dark-matter observation.”

For now, one unexplained event is not enough to say that dark matter has finally been detected. But because the signal appeared in a region where dark matter could be expected and has survived extensive scrutiny, researchers believe it deserves close attention as the experiment continues collecting data.

International Support for the Dark Matter Search

LZ is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy and Nuclear Physics, and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility.

Additional support comes from the Science & Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom; the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology; the Swiss National Science Foundation; the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics; and the Institute for Basic Science, Korea.

Thirty-nine institutions of higher education and advanced research provided support to LZ. The LZ collaboration also acknowledges the assistance of the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

Billions of years ago, before animals and plants existed, stromatolites helped release some of the earliest oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere. Now, a study published in Current Biology suggests these unusual formations may also preserve clues to another major event in Earth’s history: the emergence of complex life.

Associate Professor Brendan Burns, an evolutionary microbiologist at UNSW Sydney, is part of a research team that discovered a previously unknown microbe living in close association with another organism inside these “living fossils.” The project, co-led with researchers from the University of Technology Sydney and The University of Melbourne, could help scientists better understand a fundamental evolutionary mystery: how relatively simple cells began cooperating and eventually gave rise to much more complex forms of life.

“Stromatolites could be more than ‘just’ a cradle of life where early microbial life flourished,” says A/Prof. Burns.

“They could also tell us how complex life first emerged.”

A Microbial Partnership With Ancient Roots

Stromatolites and microbial mats first appeared billions of years ago, but they have not disappeared. They still form today in Shark Bay, a World Heritage-listed site in Western Australia.

Samples collected there eventually led A/Prof. Burns and his colleagues to isolate a member of the Asgard archaea, an unusual group of microbes believed to be closely related to the ancestors of eukaryotes, which are the cells that make up all plants and animals, including humans.

One long-standing idea in biology proposes that the first eukaryotic cell developed through an intimate partnership between an ancient archaeon and a bacterium. According to this theory, one organism eventually engulfed the other, and that relationship ultimately produced mitochondria, the energy-producing structures found inside complex cells.

Scientists, however, have lacked direct evidence showing what such an early partnership might actually have looked like. The new research provides the first visual evidence of an Asgard archaeon physically interacting with a bacterium through extremely thin, tube-like connections called nanotubes.

“This could be a little model for how these kinds of partnerships started and ultimately formed eukaryotes,” says A/Prof. Burns.

Years Spent Trying to Grow an Elusive Microbe

Genetic sequencing showed that the organisms’ DNA was present in the samples, but getting the microbes to grow in the laboratory so researchers could study them directly proved far more difficult.

“It took four or five years in the lab,” A/Prof. Burns says. “A lot of time, optimizing and chasing different shadows.”

Asgard archaea are notoriously challenging to cultivate away from their natural habitats. The researchers could not grow the organisms on their own, and A/Prof. Burns says that difficulty may itself reveal something important about their biology.

“The fact that we could never get these organisms into pure culture is probably because they always depend on other organisms to survive,” he says.

The researchers eventually made progress using electron cryotomography, a high-resolution 3D imaging method capable of revealing structures at the scale of a millionth of a millimeter.

The images showed the archaeon and bacterium physically connected by bacterial nanotubes. Researchers also observed the archaeon producing chains of budded vesicles along with elaborate tube-like structures. The two microbes appeared to complement one another chemically, with each producing compounds the other could use, including vitamins, nutrients and hydrogen.

Coauthor Associate Professor Debnath Ghosal from The University of Melbourne says directly capturing an interaction between an Asgard archaeon and a bacterium is particularly significant.

“This discovery brings us a few steps closer towards understanding how complex cells evolved from relatively simpler microbial life forms,” A/Prof Ghosal says.

Ancient Cellular Machinery Comes Into View

The team also incorporated deep learning, a type of machine learning, into its analysis, according to coauthor Associate Professor Kate Mitchie from UNSW.

“We used this to predict the structures of proteins in these microbes,” A/Prof. Mitchie says.

“And that’s exciting because we can start to see ancient versions of the cellular machinery that later became central to complex life.”

A/Prof. Burns describes archaea as ‘companions’. Life inside microbial mats can be harsh, and close cooperation between organisms may provide a crucial survival advantage even at microscopic scales.

A Living Window Into Early Earth

Coauthor Associate Professor Iain Duggin from the University of Technology Sydney says it is remarkable to consider that microbes may have maintained partnerships like these in such environments for millions of years, eventually contributing to the emergence of complex life, including humans.

“It’s if we have slowly arisen from the bottom of the sea,” A/Prof. Duggin says.

The newly identified archaeon has been named Nerearchaeum marumarumayae. Its name combines a reference to Nereus, the ancient Greek sea god, with the Malgana word marumarumayae, meaning ‘ancient home’.

Malgana is one of the traditional languages spoken by the people of central Shark Bay, whose ties to country are recognized by Native Title. Malgana elders, rangers and community members continue to care for country in Shark Bay by protecting wildlife and restoring the land.

Shark Bay also has a long Indigenous history. Indigenous people first inhabited the region around 30,000 years ago.

Honoring Shark Bay’s Malgana Heritage

The process of naming the microbe included consultation with Kymberly Oakley, the world’s foremost Malgana language expert. Researchers also worked with Malgana elders to identify language that could be used respectfully in the organism’s scientific name. The elders granted permission for the Malgana language to be included so that the culture could be recognized and celebrated.

For researchers, the microbial communities of Shark Bay provide an unusual opportunity to study conditions that may resemble parts of early Earth. For Traditional Owners, the same environments form part of a living cultural heritage that continues to be protected and cared for.

A/Prof. Burns now hopes to identify additional microbial partnerships and expand what he calls a “little primordial Asgard soup,” giving scientists more pieces of the puzzle surrounding the earliest stages in the evolution of complex life.

“But it’s not just about the organisms,” he says. “It’s about people as well. A huge collaborative effort across disciplines with many graduate students being instrumental in building this story.

“Part of what makes this exciting is that it’s not just discovery, but connection. Not just across many years, but at a time when these fragile ecosystems face mounting threats from climate change and human activity.”

The findings also highlight how deeply survival can depend on cooperation between organisms, something A/Prof. Burns says remains just as relevant today.

“These microbes remind us that even the smallest partners can leave the deepest mark on our history.”

It is the first time scientists have observed a large, regularly shaped jet pattern in Saturn’s southern hemisphere. The structure has some similarities to Saturn’s famous hexagon at its northern pole, but important differences suggest researchers may be watching a distinct atmospheric phenomenon take shape.

The results were published in the journal Science Advances.

A New Pattern Emerges on Saturn

Researchers reconstructed the development of the feature using several years of Hubble observations going back to 2023. Earlier images contained faint signs of the structure before it developed into the much clearer pattern seen more recently.

The observations came from Hubble’s Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, which has captured annual images of the outer planets for more than a decade.

“We’ve never seen anything quite like this in Saturn’s southern hemisphere,” said Amy Simon, study co-author and OPAL principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The northern hexagon has been there every time we’ve looked for more than 40 years. This feature is different — it appears to be strengthening, giving us the rare opportunity to watch a giant atmospheric pattern develop.”

Saturn’s changing seasons played an important role in the discovery. As the planet moved through its seasonal cycle, its south pole gradually became visible again from Earth. Astronomers studying images from ground-based observatories were the first to recognize the unusual structure.

Amateur Astronomers Help Spot the Decagon

Study lead author Agustín Sánchez-Lavega is a researcher at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. The university operates the Planetary Virtual Observatory Laboratory, a website that collects ground-based images of solar system planets submitted by observers around the world.

In images from 2024, Sánchez-Lavega and amateur astronomers Trevor Barry and Jean-Paul Oger noticed a faint, wavy band near Saturn’s south pole. Ground-based observations collected in 2025 provided stronger evidence that the feature had developed into a decagon.

Researchers then turned to Hubble for a more detailed view. Because the telescope observes from space, it can capture sharper images across complete rotations of Saturn without the blurring caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

“Given Saturn’s symmetry in its north-south jet stream system, we have been searching for a counterpart to Saturn’s northern hexagon on the south pole in Hubble images since 1990,” Sánchez-Lavega said. “Images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which orbited Saturn between 2004 and 2017, showed no inkling of a long-lived formation, either. The Hubble data confirmed the feature’s presence back to 2023.”

A Deep Atmospheric Structure

The newly identified wave lies within one of Saturn’s powerful jet streams. Observations also show that it extends through several layers of the atmosphere, meaning it is not simply a pattern visible at the cloud tops. Instead, it appears to be a vertically extended atmospheric structure.

Its apparent location changes slightly depending on the wavelength used by Hubble. Different wavelengths allow astronomers to observe different altitudes within Saturn’s atmosphere, producing small shifts in where the decagon seems to appear.

“The most intriguing part to me is that this seems to have just formed recently,” said Simon. “The question is, why did it suddenly form now when we haven’t seen one before?”

Scientists still do not know what triggered the decagon or whether it will remain stable. The researchers say additional observations from Hubble and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, along with computer modeling, will be needed to determine how the structure formed, how long it might survive, and how closely it resembles Saturn’s long-lasting northern hexagon.

Decades of Hubble Observations Reveal Change

Hubble’s long operational history has given astronomers an unusual ability to follow changes on planets and other astronomical objects over many years.

The OPAL program is especially valuable because it provides more than isolated snapshots. Its repeated observations allow scientists to monitor seasonal shifts, follow temporary storms, and identify atmospheric patterns that develop gradually.

“When we started the OPAL program, we expected compelling surprises, but we didn’t know what to expect specifically,” said Mike Wong, study co-author at the University of California, Berkeley. “A lot of the discoveries we see coming from OPAL are not just based on one observation, but on years and years of data. Regular observations over time are enabling a lot of new findings.”

Researchers will continue monitoring Saturn to see whether the southern decagon becomes a stable, long-lived feature like the northern hexagon or keeps changing.

Future observations may also help explain what powers the wave and what it can teach scientists about atmospheric behavior on giant planets across the solar system. Those findings could even provide broader insights into atmospheric dynamics that also occur on Earth.

September Skywatching Highlights

• Sept. 14-20: Follow the Moon to Antares and the Teapot; from dark locations, you may also glimpse the center of the Milky Way
• Sept 18: Venus reaches peak brightness during its current evening appearance
• Sept. 22: The September equinox marks the beginning of fall in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere
• Sept. 26: The Harvest Moon rises near Saturn and Neptune

September offers a little bit of everything in the evening sky. The Moon helps point the way to a celestial teapot, Venus becomes exceptionally bright, the seasons officially turn, and the Harvest Moon appears with two planetary companions.

[See Video Link After Article.]

Follow the Moon to Antares and Sagittarius

Between September 14 and 20, the Moon can serve as a useful guide to several notable sights in the night sky. About an hour after sunset, face south and locate the Moon.

Its position will change from one evening to the next as it moves against the more distant background stars. Along the way, it will pass close to Antares.

Antares is a bright reddish star that represents the heart of the constellation Scorpius.

Nearby in the constellation Sagittarius is another easy-to-recognize pattern of stars known as the Teapot. Its stars form a shape that resembles a teapot, including a handle, lid, and spout.

From a location with especially dark skies, you might also notice a faint, cloudy band that appears to rise like steam from the Teapot’s spout.

Trace that hazy glow toward its densest region, and you will be looking in the direction of the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Venus Reaches Peak Brilliance

On September 18, turn toward the west to see Venus at peak brilliance during this evening appearance.

The planet should be easy to identify. Not long after sunset, Venus will appear as an intensely bright point of light low above the western horizon, shining more brightly than any star around it. An unobstructed view toward the horizon will make it easier to see before Venus disappears below it.

International Observe the Moon Night

September 19 is International Observe the Moon Night.

People around the globe are encouraged to spend time observing our nearest celestial neighbor while learning about lunar science, exploration, and the Moon’s influence on cultures throughout history. Find an event near you or learn how to participate from wherever you are at go.nasa.gov/ObserveTheMoon.

The September Equinox Changes the Seasons

On September 22, fall officially begins in the Northern Hemisphere, while spring starts in the Southern Hemisphere.

This date marks the September equinox, when the Sun is positioned directly above Earth’s equator and the lengths of day and night are close to equal across much of the planet.

After the equinox, daylight continues to decrease in the Northern Hemisphere while increasing in the Southern Hemisphere.

Harvest Moon Rises Near Saturn and Neptune

On September 26, the Harvest Moon becomes the main attraction, rising in the eastern sky shortly after sunset.

Saturn will appear nearby, while the much fainter Neptune forms a broad triangle with Saturn and the Moon.

Saturn is bright enough to see with the unaided eye. Neptune presents more of a challenge. At around magnitude 8, the distant planet is too dim to spot without optical assistance, so binoculars or a telescope will be needed. Dark skies and favorable observing conditions can improve your chances of finding it.

Here are the phases of the Moon for September.