                        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.

                               2022 January 3

                          Comet Leonard's Long Tail
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Hattenbach

   Explanation: You couldn't see Comet Leonard's extremely long tail with
   a telescope -- it was just too long. You also couldn't see it with
   binoculars -- still too long. Or with your eyes -- it was too dim. Or
   from a city -- the sky was too bright. But from a dark location with a
   low horizon -- your camera could. And still might -- if the comet
   survives today's closest encounter with the Sun, which occurs between
   the orbits of Mercury and Venus. The featured picture was created from
   two deep and wide-angle camera images taken from La Palma in the Canary
   Islands of Spain late last month. Afterwards, if it survives, what is
   left of Comet Leonard's nucleus will head out of our Solar System,
   never to return.

                   Tomorrow's picture: moons beyond rings
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

