                        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 25

                     Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour
    Video Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham (NARIT); Text: Matipon
                                Tangmatitham

   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.

     Gallery: Notable images submitted to APOD of Comet Leonard in 2021
                  Tomorrow's picture: colorful star clouds
     __________________________________________________________________

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

