A brilliant fireball meteor was snapped streaking in front of the lengthy tail of Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) over a Czech castle in the early hours of April 18. (Image credit: Petr Horálek/Josef Kujal)

A dramatic photo shows the extremely unlikely moment when a blazing fireball meteor photobombed a contender for the "Great Comet of 2026" as it shone in the night sky over a 500-year-old European castle.

Photographers Petr Horálek and Josef Kujal snapped the cosmic coincidence on April 18 in the skies over the ruins of the 15th-century Kunětická Hora Castle, in the central Czech Republic, at around 4:15 a.m. local time.…