Heliospheric Imager Captures Comet Leonard

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Comet Leonard by SoloHI

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Frame from a motion picture recorded by the SoloHI instrument on the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft of Comet Leonard on December 17-18,2021 Credit: ESA/NASA/NRL/ SoloHI

Comet Leonard, a mass of area dust, rock, and ice about a kilometer throughout is heading for a close pass of the Sun on 3 January, and the ESA/ NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft has actually been viewing its development over the last days.

The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) recorded an animated series of images 17-19 December that reveals comet Leonard spotting diagonally throughout the field of vision with the Milky Way as a spectacular background. Venus and Mercury are likewise noticeable in the leading right, Venus appearing brighter and moving from delegated right.

The comet is presently on its incoming journey around the Sun with its tail spotting out behind. When SoloHI tape-recorded these images, the comet was roughly in between the Sun and the spacecraft, with its gas and dust tails pointing towards the spacecraft. Toward completion of the image series, our view of both of the tails enhances as the seeing angle at which we see the comet increases, and SoloHI gets a side-on view of the comet.

A faint coronal mass ejection front is likewise noticeable moving from the right-hand man side of the frame in the last second of the motion picture.

SoloHI will continue observing the comet till it leaves its field of vision on December 22, and will be matched by other instrument observations.

Ground- based telescopes and other spacecraft have actually likewise been following the comet on its journey through the Solar System and supplying images, consisting of NASA’s Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory- A spacecraft– see here.

Comet Leonard, officially called C/2021 A1 (Leonard), was found in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who identified it in images drawn from theMt Lemmon Observatory inArizona Its closest hand down 3 January 2022 will take it within 90 million kilometers of the Sun, somewhat over half Earth’s range to theSun If it does not break down, its trajectory will fling it into interstellar area, never ever to return.

About Solar Orbiter

Solar Orbiter released 10 February 2020 and is on an objective to supply the very first views of the Sun’s uncharted polar areas, providing unmatched insight into how our moms and dad star works. It will examine how extreme radiation and energetic particles being blasted out from the Sun and brought by the solar wind through the Solar System effect our house world, to much better comprehend and anticipate durations of rainy ‘space weather.’