Leonard is the brightest comet in 2021, discovered by astronomer Greg Leonard
-Exciting news! A newly found comet might become 2021’s brightest comet. Astronomer Greg Leonard discovered the comet that now bears his name – C2021 A1 (Leonard) – on January 3, 2021, at the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona. Astronomers report that discovery images show a tail for the comet, suggesting we might see a nice tail as Comet Leonard draws closer to the Earth and sun. The comet is still far away, currently between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, heading inward. It will reach perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, around January 3, 2022. And so, we’ll have a whole year to watch this comet get brighter and brighter!
NASA JPL estimates that Comet Leonard’s closest approach to Earth will be on December 12, 2021 (at around 14:13 UTC). Translate UTC to your time. It will pass Earth at an extremely safe distance of 21,690,493 miles.
Its orbit also suggests that the comet will then pass relatively close (about 2,632,000 miles) to planet Venus on December 18, 2021.
Estimates indicate it might reach a visual magnitude of around 5 or even 4 (the lower the brighter), and although at its brightest the comet will be very close to the horizon, we still might get very good views using binoculars during the days before closest approach to Earth, in early December 2021, with visibility to the eye alone still a possibility.
Nature provides us with sky events seen once in a lifetime. Comet Leonard might be one of these, as it seems to have a hyperbolic orbit, that is, an orbit that will carry it only once through the inner solar system, then out again into the depths of space.
In other words, after this current sweep close past our sun, Comet Leonard will not be seen again from Earth.
This comet will be initially visible from the Northern Hemisphere and will become visible from the Southern Hemisphere in December 2021 and January 2022.
Will Comet Leonard be visible to the unaided eye? It is possible. This might be this year’s brightest comet (unless a new brighter one is discovered). It will provide a nice spectacle to observers using long exposure cameras, binoculars, and even the smallest telescopes.
An amazing feature of this celestial visitor is that it is an ultrafast comet; it is traveling at 158,076 miles per hour relative to Earth.
Despite its incredible speed through the vast space of our solar system, do not expect to see this comet swoosh across the sky. Like planets, comets do move in front of the star background, but only very slowly due to the large distances involved. Observers using telescopes will have to take a close look at the comet’s position relative to background stars and compare the view five or 10 minutes later to detect its motion because its great distance will cause it to appear as a very slow-moving object.
Around December 14-16, 2021, Comet C 2021 A1 (Leonard) will become visible just after sunset, very low on the southwest horizon, as seen from the U.S.
Bottom line: Comet C 2021 A1 (Leonard) – discovered on January 3, 2021 – is currently between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, heading inward. It’ll reach perihelion, its closest approach to the sun, around January 3, 2022. We will have a whole year to watch this comet get brighter and brighter. It might become the brightest comet of 2021!
comet atlas 2020
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Leonard is the brightest comet in 2021, discovered by astronomer Greg Leonard
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