Bright comet Leonard is approaching – When will it cross the earth’s sky

An upcoming comet, C / 2021 A1 (Leonard), which will cross the earth’s sky in December, is expected to be the brightest of 2021. It is a fastest comet traveling at an impressive speed of 254,412 kilometers per hour or about 70.7 kilometers per second relative to Earth.

The frozen comet was discovered earlier this year by American astronomer Gregory Leonard of the Mount Lemmon Observatory in Arizona, after whom it takes its name. Telescope observations are already revealing the comet’s tail, which is heading for the Sun, reaching its orbit (the closest point to our star) on January 3, 2022, when it will be about 91 million kilometers away from the Sun. In the meantime it will have become visible in the night sky of our planet.

According to the US Space Agency (NASA) Jet Laboratory (JPL), the comet is expected to get closer to Earth on December 12, at a distance of about 35 million kilometers, far enough to be easily visible to the naked eye, but it will be visible with binoculars or a small telescope. On December 18, it will pass much closer to Venus, at a distance of only 4.2 million kilometers. “Leonard” estimates that after Christmas it will no longer be possible to observe, as it will approach the Sun.

The comet was estimated to take tens of thousands of years to complete a highly elliptical orbit around the Sun, as its previous orbit – its farthest distance from our star – is estimated at about 3,500 astronomical units (such a unit equals the average distance Earth-Sun or 149,565,894 kilometers). After its “walk” around the Sun at the beginning of the new year, the comet is expected to disappear beyond the depths of the solar system and never become visible again.

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