Comet Leonard will make its closest method to Earth tonight at a distance of about 35 million kilometers from our planet.
Currently, astronomers have noticed greater than 3700 comets in our photo voltaic system and Leonard is a typical comet that’s shifting across the Sun at a velocity of about 47 kilometers per second.
“It’s a bright-ish comet that we see in the sky on average once per year. As it gets a little closer, it may become visible to the naked eye, making some fascinating pictures, but, for us As for objects that could pose a threat to Earth, this comet is thankfully uncompetitive,” explains Marco Micheli, astronomer on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Near-Earth Object Coordination Center in a launch.
How to see a comet?
Get out of the town lights, lie down and lookup on the sky. Around 7:22 am you’ll be able to see a ‘taking pictures star’ working at excessive velocity. If fortunate, you would possibly even see another slow-moving comets along with your bare eye.
On December 7, ESA’s Near-Earth Object Coordination Center launched a picture of the comet captured utilizing the Calar Alto Schmidt telescope in Spain.
By superimposing a ‘stack’ of 90 photos every 5 seconds ‘lengthy’, the comet was captured as coloured stripes starting from inexperienced to purple to blue.
True shade composite picture of Comet Leonard (ESA)
“Centered around the comet’s bright nucleus, these colors come together to form a brilliant white glow of the nucleus, while the greenish-blue color around it is a real-life, distinctive color emitted by comets due to their chemical composition,” says ESA he stated.
Comets are icy remnants from the early phases of the formation of the outer planets. They orbit the Sun and emit particles and gases as they transfer towards the interior Solar System. These are heated by photo voltaic radiation and kind the distinctive tail of the comet. Some comets could also be in excessive orbits and journey at distances of greater than 50,000 occasions Earth’s distance from the Sun.
When Earth passes via the previous path of historical comets, we get to see meteor showers.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
