It has recently been discovered and christened Leonardo. It will be part of one of the most vibrant shows of 2021, as it is expected that this comet could be the brightest this year when it approaches the Sun at the end of the year. The object, cataloged as C / 2021 AI, was discovered by astronomer Gregory J Leonard on January 3 at the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory in Arizona (USA), located in the Santa Catalina Mountains, about 28 kilometers to the northeast of Tucson, Arizona.
Could be visible to the naked eye
What at first appeared to be a fairly faint object, of magnitude 19, almost 160,000 times fainter than the faintest stars to the naked eye , the comet was about 5 astronomical units from the sun (remember that an astronomical unit, or AU, equals the average distance from the Earth to the sun of 149,565 million km). So at 5 AU, Comet Leonardo is close to the orbit of Jupiter, far from our star, but it was beginning to feel the effects of its warm rays and slowly began the process for it to flourish until it became the celestial object that we can contemplate in all its splendor during the month of December.
Astronomers have exposed that the discovery images show a tail for the comet, suggesting that we could see a nice tail as Comet Leonardo approaches Earth and the Sun.
How far away is Leonardo?
It is still far away, as it is currently between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars, heading inward. It will reach perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, around January 3, 2022, this means that we will have a whole year to watch it get brighter and brighter.
According to astronomers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Comet Leonardo’s closest approach to Earth will be on December 12, 2021 (around 14:13 UTC). It will pass the Earth at an extremely safe distance of about 35 million kilometers). Its orbit also suggests that the comet will pass relatively close to the planet Venus on December 18, 2021. Estimates indicate that it could reach a visual magnitude of around 5 or even 4 – similar to NEOWISE in 2020 -, (remember, the lower the brightest index the object will be seen), and although at its brightest the comet will be very close to the horizon, there are great possibilities of obtaining very good views using binoculars during the days before approach to Earth, in early December 2021 , and contemplation with the naked eye is also a possibility.
The comet has a hyperbolic orbit, which means that once the Sun passes it will be ejected from the solar system and will never be seen from our planet again. Its orbit shows that it is not a “new” comet that comes directly from the Oort cloud, an icy layer around the solar system where comets appear to originate before going around the sun and experiencing the effects of the sun for the first time. that you have not always been on a trajectory that leads you out of the solar system; until this trip around the sun, the comet had an orbital period of approximately 70,000 years. It is a unique opportunity.
A curiosity: did you know that for ancient observers, the tails of comets resembled a head of loose hair, which is why they called comets “hairy stars”?
Try not to miss this astronomical event as comets bright enough to be seen with the naked eye for those who do not have large telescopes are quite rare, they may appear an average of one or two years to every 10-15 years.
