Credit: ESA/NASA/NRL/SoloHI/Guillermo Stenborg
When Comet Leonard, a mass of area mud, rock and ice a few half-mile (1 kilometer) huge, makes its closest move of the Sun on Jan. 3, 2022, it will likely be a journey 40,000 years within the making. Ahead of its shut move, two Sun-observing spacecraft captured these views of the comet.
The animated picture at proper was captured by NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A spacecraft, SECCHI/HI-2 telescope, which has watched the comet since early November. This animated “distinction picture” was created by subtracting the present body from the earlier body to focus on variations between them. Difference photos are helpful for seeing refined adjustments in Leonard’s ion tail (the path of ionized gases streaming from the comet’s physique, or nucleus), which turns into longer and brighter towards the tip of the clip.
The video beneath, captured between Dec. 17-19, 2021 by the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) aboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft, reveals Comet Leonard streaking diagonally throughout the sphere of view with the Milky Way within the background. Venus and Mercury are additionally seen within the prime proper, Venus showing brighter and transferring from left to proper. During this sequence, Solar Orbiter strikes towards a sidelong view of the comet, revealing extra of its tail. SoloHI will proceed observing the comet till it leaves its subject of view on Dec. 22, 2021.
Comet Leonard was found in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who noticed it in photos taken from the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. Its closest move on Jan. 3, 2022 will take it inside 56 million miles (90 million kilometers) of the Sun, barely greater than half Earth’s distance. If it would not disintegrate, its trajectory will fling it into interstellar area, by no means to return.
Comet Leonard streaks throughout the sphere of view of the SoloHI telescope aboard ESA/NASA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft on Dec. 17-19, 2021. The comet’s obvious backward motion is because of the spacecraft’s relative movement. Credit: ESA/NASA/NRL/SoloHI/Guillermo Stenborg
How to see comet Leonard, in accordance with the researcher who found it
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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Views of comet Leonard from two sun-watching spacecraft (2021, December 21)
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