Comet Leonard could be seen on December 22, these are NASA images shared from space.
After the near-Earth passage of Comet Leonard, its trajectory will throw it into interstellar space, never to return. However, this moment was recorded thanks to the NASA image generator.
Two NASA Sun-viewing spacecraft captured these views of Comet Leonard, a kilometer-wide mass of space dust, rock, and ice approaching the Sun.
What is a comet?
According to the official Nasa site, comets consist mostly of ice covered with resting organic material.
They were called dirty snowballs. They may provide important clues about the formation of our solar system.
Comets probably brought water and organic compounds, basic elements for life, in the early days of Earth and other parts of the solar system.
Each comet has a small frozen part called the nucleus, which is often no larger than a few kilometers.
The core contains chunks of ice and frozen gases with embedded chunks of rock and dust. The core may have a small rocky interior.
NASA images of Comet Leonard
The Leonard image on the right was captured by the SECCHI / HI-2 telescope aboard NASA’s STEREO-A observatory, which has been observing the comet since early November.
The ‘difference image’ was created by subtracting the current frame from the previous frame to highlight the differences between them.
Difference images are useful for seeing subtle changes in Leonard’s ion tail (the trail of ionized gases flowing from the comet’s body or nucleus), which becomes longer and brighter towards the end of the clip.
Comet Leonard was discovered in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who saw it in images taken from the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.
Comet Leonard was discovered in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who saw it in images taken from the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.