Newly Found Comet ¡®Leonard¡¯ Will Flyby Earth In 2021, Could Be Brightest Ever
Researchers believe that Leonard has spent around 35,000 years, travelling a distance of over 520 billion kilometres.
A recently discovered comet dubbed Leonard could become the brightest comet of the year 2021 when it passes by Earth. Catalogued as C/2021 AI, it was discovered by astronomer Gregory J. Leonard on January 3, 2021, from the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory in Arizona.
Filip Romanov/ Wikipedia
What¡¯s surprising is that when this Leonard comet was first discovered, it was really faint -- a 16 magnitude object, roughly 160,000 times dimmer than the faintest star which one can see from the naked eye -- basically he was barely visible. However, according to the researchers, when it does come to Earth¡¯s orbit, its faint, barely-visible avatar will turn to a magnitude of four or five.
Leonard comet earth fly by
Researchers believe that comet Leonard has spent around 35,000 years, travelling a distance of over 520 billion kilometres. They claim that Leonard could have last visited the inner solar system around 70,000 years ago. As of now, Leonard comet is travelling at around 254,400 kilometres per hour which is approximately 70 kilometres per second.
As the climate is en route to the Sun, it is getting brighter every day. As of now the comet is between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars and is anticipated to be the closest to Earth on December 12, roughly 35 million kilometres away.
There isn¡¯t much info on its size available as of now since it was just discovered some time back, but researchers have been keeping a close eye on it ever since. They¡¯ve discovered that it is already showing signs of a tail.
Researchers predict that it will be at its closest to the Sun on January 3, 2022. Experts claim that if its magnitude is around four, it¡¯ll be enough to be visible with the naked eye from Earth, however, they also highlight that the comet could be very close to the horizon.
Guest lecturer at the Hayden Planetarium, Joe Rao, wrote in a Space.com article, that Comet Leonard will be hidden by the powerful solar glare during this time, rapidly moving away from Earth and Sun post-January 3 and eventually fading away.
Representational Image: NASA
He claims that people who would be curious to see it once before it fades away will have to get up before sunrise during early and mid-December mornings to get the perfect glimpse.
