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Credit & Copyright: Matipon Tangmatitham
(NARIT)
Explanation:
Which one of these two streaks is a comet?
Although they both have comet-like features, the lower streak is the only real comet.
This lower streak shows the coma and tail of
Comet Leonard, a city-sized block of rocky ice
that is passing through the inner
Solar System as it continues its
looping orbit around the Sun.
Comet
Leonard has recently passed its
closest to both the Earth and Venus and will round the Sun next week.
The comet, still visible to the unaided eye, has developed a
long and changing tail in recent weeks.
In contrast, the upper streak is the
launch
plume of the
Ariane V rocket
that lifted the
James Webb Space Telescope
(JWST) off the Earth two days ago.
The featured single-exposure image was taken from
Thailand, and the
foreground spire is atop a pagoda in
Doi Inthanon National Park.
JWST, NASA's largest and most powerful space telescope so far,
will orbit the Sun near the Earth-Sun
L2 point and is
scheduled to start science observations in the summer of 2022.
Gallery:
Comet Leonard 2021
Gallery:
Webb Space Telescope Launch: 2021 December 25
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet - launch
Publications with words: comet - launch
See also:
- APOD: 2024 December 16 Á A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko
- APOD: 2024 November 27 Á The Meteor and the Comet
- APOD: 2024 November 11 Á The Unusual Tails of Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas
- APOD: 2024 November 6 Á Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites
- APOD: 2024 October 21 Á Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS over California
- Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS Flys Away
- Most of Comet Tsuchinshan ATLAS