Comet Leonard will accompany us for the remainder of the month

On December 17, from Huancayo, the brothers and astrophotographers José and Hugo Santiváñez, from the Discovery observatory and planetarium, obtained an image of the Kite brightest of the year: the C/2021 A1, also known as Leonard.

Although it is true that this type of observation is not something strange or unusual, Leonard’s case stands out among others because it comes from one of the most remote regions of our solar system, the nube de Oort; further, .

–A great tour–

This celestial body was discovered at the beginning of the year by Gregory J. Leonard – hence its name. According to initial analyzes, this is a long period kite; that is to say,.

Most long-period comets come from the Oort cloud, which is about 100,000 astronomical units from the Sun, which is 100,000 times the distance between Earth and this star.

“Leonard comes from the outermost region of the solar system, the Oort cloud. And that gives it greater value because. It is very difficult to see a comet of this type ”, José Ricra, a graduate in physics and scientific director of the Afari astronomical observatory, told El Comercio.

But that’s not all, Nobar Baella, a researcher in the astronomy area of ​​the Geophysical Institute of Peru (IGP), said that; in other words, it leaves us forever.

–The Christmas comet–

On December 12, Leonard reached his closest point to Earth, being located 34.9 million kilometers from our planet. Also, in a fact that surprised the specialists, it became brighter and reached a magnitude of 2.6.

Nowadays, . In this journey it will lose its brightness and it will be increasingly difficult to observe it. However, Baella indicated that the comet could surprise us, since these celestial bodies can be a bit unpredictable at times.

“As this is the first time we have captured Leonard on his way to the Sun, we don’t know for sure what will happen. When it reaches the star, it may fragment, become more extinct or increase its brightness ”, explained Baella.

Ricra commented that.

For those interested,. It stands out for its greenish color, product of organic materials, such as cyanogen gas and diatonic carbon.

Finally, Ricra stressed that the study of comets is of the utmost importance because they store information about the origin of the solar system and could help us solve questions such as: why did planets form or why is there water and life on Earth? ?