APOD: Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour (2022 Jan 25)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5345
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour (2022 Jan 25)

Post by APOD Robot » Tue Jan 25, 2022 5:06 am

Image 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.

<< Previous APOD This Day in APOD Next APOD >>

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour (2022 Jan 25)

Post by orin stepanek » Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:59 pm

450px-Comet_2021_A1_(Leonard).jpg
Aw! No picture today! Borrowed this from Wikipedia photo! :roll:
New; for me! (solar magnetic reconnection!) Knowing about them;
and being able to use that information; sounds complex to me!
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

De58te
Commander
Posts: 583
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 6:35 pm

Re: APOD: Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour (2022 Jan 25)

Post by De58te » Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:27 pm

That's true there isn't 'an' astronomy picture today. It's actually a series of moving pictures! Sometimes called motion pictures, or more commonly we call a video. By the way, I think it was cool.

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour (2022 Jan 25)

Post by neufer » Tue Jan 25, 2022 11:40 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
De58te wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:27 pm
orin stepanek wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 12:59 pm
Aw! No picture today! New; for me! (solar magnetic reconnection!) Knowing about them; and being able to use that information; sounds complex to me!
That's true there isn't 'an' astronomy picture today. It's actually a series of moving pictures! Sometimes called motion pictures, or more commonly we call a video.
Art Neuendorffer

Post Reply