Comet Leonard - the Christmas Comet

This glimpse into the universe is a passing visitor in 2021, Comet Leonard. The image was captured on December 27th hence it is also called theChristmas Comet. Now past it's closest approach to us, this comet will never return again.

This image is a combination of over 40 raw images obtained from a profesional institution-grade telescope located high on a mountain in Chile. For this image I rented time on a Planewave CDK 17 inch telescope in La Dehesa Chile from Slooh and specified the target area of the sky I want and how many of what type of raw images I want.

The colors are produced by the components of the comet. Each molecule has their unique colors, so energy at different wavelengths are released when these gases are heated by the Sun. For instance, the green color in the comet's tail is due to its icy rock interior. Comet Leonard first emits a blue color that turns yellow or white and then finally green.

Its teal color indicates that the comet is warm, contains lots of diatomic carbon and cyanide, and can break up at its highest. When it comes close to the Sun, it reflects different wavelengths visible to the naked eye.

Furthermore, the red color is due to organic-rich material like carbon. Ice particles tend to scatter more to create the blue light, but the tail dust has organic compounds that cause the red color.

This raw data is then processed using specialised astronomical software (similar to what the Hubble team use) to produce the image you see here.

So here we have a cosmic visitor that has most likely been travelling for 1000's of years, sharing photons just to grace your walls, never to return again.