by APOD Robot » Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:06 am
Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour
Explanation: Which direction is this comet heading? Judging by the tail, one might imagine that
Comet Leonard is traveling towards the bottom right, but a full 3D analysis shows it traveling
almost directly away from the camera. With this perspective, the
dust tail is trailed towards the camera and can only be seen as a short yellow-white glow near the head of the comet. The bluish
ion tail, however, is made up of escaping ions that are forced directly away from the
Sun by the
solar wind -- but channeled along the
Sun's magnetic field lines. The Sun's magnetic field is quite complex, however, and occasionally
solar magnetic reconnection will
break the ion tail into knots that are pushed away from the Sun. One such knot is visible in the featured one-hour time-lapse video captured in late December from
Thailand.
Comet Leonard is now fading as it heads out of
our Solar System.
[url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220125.html] [img]https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_220125.jpg[/img] [size=150]Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour[/size][/url]
[b] Explanation: [/b] Which direction is this comet heading? Judging by the tail, one might imagine that [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)]Comet Leonard[/url] is traveling towards the bottom right, but a full 3D analysis shows it traveling [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)#/media/File:Animation_of_C%EF%BC%8F2021_A1's_orbit_around_Sun_-_2021_close_approach.gif]almost directly away[/url] from the camera. With this perspective, the [url=https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/C/cometary+dust+tail]dust tail[/url] is trailed towards the camera and can only be seen as a short yellow-white glow near the head of the comet. The bluish [url=http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/tail.html]ion tail[/url], however, is made up of escaping ions that are forced directly away from the [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/in-depth/]Sun[/url] by the [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/]solar wind[/url] -- but channeled along the [url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/understanding-the-magnetic-sun]Sun's magnetic field[/url] lines. The Sun's magnetic field is quite complex, however, and occasionally [url=https://youtu.be/8NDPsSZCcz0?t=23]solar magnetic reconnection[/url] will [url=https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220110.html]break the ion tail[/url] into knots that are pushed away from the Sun. One such knot is visible in the featured one-hour time-lapse video captured in late December from [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand]Thailand[/url]. [url=https://theskylive.com/where-is-cometleonard]Comet Leonard[/url] is now fading as it heads out of [url=https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/overview/]our Solar System[/url].
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