WASHINGTON — After spending 40 thousand years to reach us, the brightest comet of 2021 will reach its closest point to Earth in a few hours, after which it will almost hit Venus before reaching its closest point to the Sun.
Here are the details: NPR reports that Comet Leonard is about to pass Earth on December 12 before reaching its closest point to the Sun on January 3, exactly a year after it was first discovered by astronomer Greg Leonard.
The comet is classified as an ultra-fast comet, but even at its incredible speed of 71 kilometers per second, it needed around 40,000 years to reach its sharp turn around the Sun — from its turning point billions of miles away in deep space.
After January 3 it will start on its long journey back into deep space, before returning in around 80,000 years from now.
Comet Leonard’s official name is C/2021 A1 and not much is known about its size or composition, although almost all comets are made up of ice and dust.
It’s this dusty ice — which is heated into dusty gas by the Sun — that gives comets their massive and colorful tails, making them so much more visible and fun to watch than rocky asteroids.
Comet Leonard’s tail is already well formed, and the tail will become bigger as it rounds the sun, but NASA says you’ll still need binoculars to see it.
You have to be at least 35 years old to remember the excitement of getting woken up in the early morning to go outside and behold the wonder of the bright tail of Halley’s Comet filling the night sky.
That was in 1986, but the good news is that Halley’s Comet will be back in 2061.