                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2021 December 27

                   Comet Leonard behind JWST Launch Plume
           Image Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham (NARIT)

   Explanation: Which one of these two streaks is a comet? Although they
   both have comet-like features, the lower streak is the only real comet.
   This lower streak shows the coma and tail of Comet Leonard, a
   city-sized block of rocky ice that is passing through the inner Solar
   System as it continues its looping orbit around the Sun. Comet Leonard
   has recently passed its closest to both the Earth and Venus and will
   round the Sun next week. The comet, still visible to the unaided eye,
   has developed a long and changing tail in recent weeks. In contrast,
   the upper streak is the launch plume of the Ariane V rocket that lifted
   the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) off the Earth two days ago. The
   featured single-exposure image was taken from Thailand, and the
   foreground spire is atop a pagoda in Doi Inthanon National Park. JWST,
   NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope so far, will orbit the
   Sun near the Earth-Sun L2 point and is scheduled to start science
   observations in the summer of 2022.

                         Gallery: Comet Leonard 2021
           Gallery: Webb Space Telescope Launch: 2021 December 25
                       Tomorrow's picture: sun of ice
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
                NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

