Channel: The Cosmos News

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: the cosmos newsastronomy newsc/2021 a1 cometcomet leonardcomets in 2022comet leonard has disintegratednaked eye comet 2022comets

Description: #thecosmosnews Our brightest comet of the past year has disintegrated. This comet passed nearest the sun at perihelion on January 3, 2022 and is now moving away from the sun. It has not only faded, but is now missing its two most important parts: its nucleus (core) and its coma (temporary atmosphere). The remnants of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard) are presently in the morning sky as seen from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere. As Gregory Leonard, discoverer of Comet C/2021 A1, told EarthSky in an email on March 16, 2022: C/2021 A1’s legacy will likely be the spectacular outburst-induced displays of its ion tail structures. Otherworldly and astonishing are the only descriptions that come to mind when I began viewing the images being posted online by a handful of dedicated expert astrophotographers, particularly after December 19, 2021, when the comet began undergoing strong periodic outburst activity. Leonard, of the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, Arizona, discovered the comet on January 3, 2021, a whole year before its perihelion. At the time of its discovery, the comet was still far from being at its closest point to our sun. Ultimately, it would come well inside the orbit of the Earth and even within the orbit of the next planet inward, Venus. Early expectations were that the comet would become bright enough to see with the unaided eye. Most people never saw it with the eye (although a few experts did), but, still, this comet caused plenty of excitement in late 2021, when it was nearest Earth.