The credit was given by the ESA, NASA, andSoloHI.
It will take 40,000 years for the mass of space dust, rock and ice to pass by the Sun. These views of the comet were captured by two Sun-observing spacecraft.
The comet has been watched by the SECCHI/HI-2 telescope 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 can be used to see subtle changes in Leonard's ion tail, which becomes longer and brighter at the end of the clip.
The video below shows the comet Leonard streaking across the field of view with the Milky Way in the background. Venus and Mercury can be seen in the top right, with Venus moving from left to right. The comet's tail is revealed during this sequence as Solar Orbiter moves toward it. The comet will leave its field of view on December 22, 2021.
Gregory Leonard spotted the comet in images taken from the Mt. The Lemmon Observatory is in Arizona. It will pass within 56 million miles of the Sun on January 3, 2022. If it doesn't disintegrate, it will be thrown into space and never come back.
On December 17-19, 2021, a view of the Solar Orbiter's telescope can be seen from the field of view of comet Leonard. The comet's apparent backward movement is due to the relative motion of the spaceship. The credit was given by the ESA, NASA, andSoloHI.
The views of comet Leonard from two sun-watching spacecraft were retrieved on December 21st, 2021.
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