The Tail of a Christmas Comet

Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.

December 25th, 2021.
See the explanation. Clicking on the picture will bring you to the download page.
The highest resolution version is available.

The tail of a Christmas comet.
The image is copyrighted by Lukas Demetz andRolando Ligustri.

The tail of a comet is visible in this telescopic field of view. Leonard is this year's brightest comet, it reached naked eye visibility a few days ago. The comet can be seen close to the western horizon after sunset. The comet's coma has a greenish tinge and the comet's ion tail has magnetic fields in the solar wind. Leonard is heading toward perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun on January 3rd, after passing closest to Earth on December 12. Leonard became known as the Christmas comet in December of 2021.

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched.
The dawn of a new space telescope.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.

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Discover the universe! Each day a different image or photograph of our universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by an astronomer.

December 26th, 2021.
The James Web Space Telescope is shown in the featured image.
Just after it was released by the upper stage.
The Arianespace rocket was launched yesterday.
December 25th
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

The space telescope is on Earth.
The image is from Arianespace, NASA, CSA, and CNES.

There's a new telescope in space. The James Webb Space Telescope has a mirror over five times larger than Hubble's and can see better in the dark. The picture shows the JWST high above the Earth after it was released from the Ariane V rocket. The Sun-Earth L2 point will be where the JWST will co-orbit the Sun with the Earth over the next month. During this time and for the next five months, the JWST will test its scientific instruments and its mirror. If everything goes well, the JWST will start looking at the universe and planets in the summer of 2022.

The gallery is about the launch of the space telescope.
Tomorrow's picture is comet webb.

Robert Nemiroff is an author and Jerry Bonnell is an editor.
Phillip Newman has specific rights.
NASA has a privacy policy on the internet.
There is a service at NASA.
& Michigan Tech. U.