The breathtaking image was captured by American astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy using a telescope and shared on Instagram last week. It showcases the comet’s vivid green glow, creating a long trail of light across the sky. The distinctive color of Leonard reveals its icy structure containing a significant amount of cyanide and carbon diatomic. The comet is currently experiencing intense heating and has a high likelihood of disintegration.
Comet Leonard shines brightly in the sky. Photo: Andrew McCarthy/Cosmic Background.
McCarthy put in a great deal of effort to capture this photograph. Setting up the telescope during the daytime, a challenging period for observing celestial objects, presented numerous difficulties in aligning the equipment.
“To arrange everything, I had to rely on the Sun and Venus as both were visible during the day,” McCarthy recounted. “Usually, you have to wait a long time after sunset to take pictures, but Leonard was bright enough to see its green color before the sky turned completely dark. So, as soon as the celestial object appeared on the screen, I started taking photos.”
To achieve the final sharp image, the photographer stacked 25 rapid-fire shots taken over a span of 12 minutes, enhancing even the faintest details of the comet’s tail.
Comet Leonard was only discovered on January 3rd last year by astronomer Gregory J Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory in Arizona, USA. At that time, it was approximately 5 astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun, equivalent to 750 million kilometers, and moving at a speed of up to 257,500 km/h.
Leonard made its closest approach to Earth on its elliptical orbit on December 12th, 2021, at a distance of approximately 34.9 million kilometers. It then proceeded towards its perihelion (closest point to the Sun) on January 3rd, 2022, at a distance of about 92 million kilometers. Currently, the celestial object is moving away from the Sun, and it will be approximately 80,000 years before we have another opportunity to witness it at such a close distance.