Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]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 IFRAME: [2]https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6IpsM_HNcU?rel=0 Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour Video Credit & Copyright: [3]Matipon Tangmatitham ([4]NARIT); Text: [5]Matipon Tangmatitham Explanation: Which direction is this comet heading? Judging by the tail, one might imagine that [6]Comet Leonard is traveling towards the bottom right, but a full 3D analysis shows it traveling [7]almost directly away from the camera. With this perspective, the [8]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 [9]ion tail, however, is made up of escaping ions that are forced directly away from the [10]Sun by the [11]solar wind -- but channeled along the [12]Sun's magnetic field lines. The Sun's magnetic field is quite complex, however, and occasionally [13]solar magnetic reconnection will [14]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 [15]Thailand. [16]Comet Leonard is now fading as it heads out of [17]our Solar System. Gallery: Notable images submitted to APOD of [18]Comet Leonard in 2021 Tomorrow's picture: colorful star clouds __________________________________________________________________ [19]< | [20]Archive | [21]Submissions | [22]Index | [23]Search | [24]Calendar | [25]RSS | [26]Education | [27]About APOD | [28]Discuss | [29]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [30]Robert Nemiroff ([31]MTU) & [32]Jerry Bonnell ([33]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [34]Specific rights apply. [35]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC & [39]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://www.youtube.com/embed/s6IpsM_HNcU?rel=0 3. https://www.facebook.com/matiponblog/ 4. http://narit.or.th/ 5. https://www.facebook.com/matiponblog/ 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard) 7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2021_A1_(Leonard)#/media/File:Animation_of_C／2021_A1's_orbit_around_Sun_-_2021_close_approach.gif 8. https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/C/cometary+dust+tail 9. http://www2.ess.ucla.edu/~jewitt/tail.html 10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/in-depth/ 11. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2288/the-solar-wind-across-our-solar-system/ 12. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/understanding-the-magnetic-sun 13. https://youtu.be/8NDPsSZCcz0?t=23 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220110.html 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand 16. https://theskylive.com/where-is-cometleonard 17. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/our-solar-system/overview/ 18. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4214632848640902&type=3 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220124.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 23. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 28. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220125 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220126.html 30. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 32. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 33. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 34. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 35. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 39. http://www.mtu.edu/