Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is currently visible in the southern hemisphere, offering skywatchers in New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the Pacific a fleeting chance to observe it before it vanishes from view for up to 170,000 years. The comet, which originated in the Oort Cloud (a vast shell of icy bodies at the outermost edges of the solar system), is not visible to the naked eye but can be seen with binoculars, a telescope or a camera as a blue-green orb with a smudgy tail, best spotted low on the western horizon in the hour after sunset. Visibility will fade over the coming two weeks, and astronomers note the comet may never return at all — its orbit could be permanently disrupted as it sheds mass during its passage around the sun.