JAKARTA – NASA has shared a stunning photo of Comet Leonard soaring behind the ejection from the launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
This extraordinary shot, shown as NASA’s Astronomical Image of the Day, was taken from Thailand and shows the pagoda in Doi Inthanon National Park in the foreground.
The James Webb Space Telescope launched on Christmas Day, and is currently on its one million-mile journey into solar orbit, which is expected to take about a month.
Meanwhile, Comet Leonard, only discovered in January, is making its closest journey to Earth in the last 70,000 years.
NASA explains: ‘Which of these two lines is a comet? Although both have comet-like features, underscore is the only comet that is genuine.
‘This underline shows the coma and tail of Comet Leonard, a city-sized block of ice that passes through the inner Solar System as it continues to orbit the Sun.’
Comet Leonard recently made its closest journey to Earth, and will circle the Sun next week.
“The comet, still visible to the naked eye, has developed a long, changing tail in recent weeks,” NASA explained.
‘Instead, the top line is the launch blob of the Ariane V rocket that lifted the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from Earth two days ago.’
As reported by dailymail, Comet Leonard’s closest orbit from the Sun, on January 3, 2022, will bring it within 56 million miles of our star, which is about half the distance between Earth and the Sun.
If it wasn’t destroyed on its way to the Sun, then Comet Leonard’s trajectory would have thrown it into interstellar space, never to return.
But according to scientists, it may have broken apart less than a year after it was first discovered, or it might start to split up soon.
When the comet’s orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gas into a giant glowing head that is larger than most planets.
Comet Leonard likely took about 35,000 years to come from a distance of about 323 billion miles (520 billion km) and probably last visited the inner solar system about 70,000 years ago.
Comet Leonard makes its closest approach to Earth on Sunday, December 12, before its perihelion on January 3.
This comet has a green tail because the inside of the ice rock heats up as it approaches the Sun, emitting blue dust first, then yellow or white and finally green.
When it turns a turquoise color, it means the comet is warm, contains a lot of cyanide and diatomic carbon and has a very high potential for rupture.
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