skywatchers have been watching Leonard, a dirty snowball made of ice, rock, and dust, since early this year.
As it heads towards a close encounter with the Sun on 3 January 2022, several spacecraft are keeping an eye on how the comet is changing and evolving.
Two satellites designed to observe the Sun captured recent video of the comet Leonard as it sped past the Earth for the first time in 80,000 years.
A sequence of images captured by the Solar Heliospheric Imager show a streaking comet.
Venus and Mercury are visible in the top right, as well as the Milky Way. Venus is moving from left to right.
An amazing view!
The comet was between the Sun and the spacecraft when the images were taken.
The view of the comet's tails improves as the viewing angle at which we see it increases.
Leonard has definitely kicked into a new gear over the past couple of days. The tail action is great!
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The images were taken from the NASA Sun STEREO-A camera on Dec 14.
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Karl Battams is on the SungrazerComets.
NASA's STEREO-A took an animated image with its SECCHI/HI-2 telescope.
The comet has been watched by this craft.
NASA explained that the difference image was created by subtracting the current frame from the previous frame.
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.
Leonard made its closest approach to Earth on December 12.
The comet can be seen in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres.
Gregory Leonard discovered it at the Mount Lemmon Observatory.
The comet's official name is C/2021 A1 Leonard. At the time of its discovery, it was about 5AU distant from the Sun.
We won't ever see Leonard again because it will be ejected from the solar system after its perihelion passage.
About 35,000 years ago, the comet reached aphelion, or closest point to the sun. It will be just 0.62AU from the Sun on January 3, 2022.
The article was published by Universe Today. The original article can be found here.
