There Was Something Very Wrong With Comet Leonard As It Approached Earth
Comet Leonard was the brightest and most anticipated comet of 2021 and came on time as expected. But experts say something was wrong with the comet.
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Comet Leonard, the brightest and most anticipated comet for 2021, passed Earth, delighting viewers, but experts say something was off. Comets are believed to be leftovers of the solar system’s creation, dating back billions of years ago. Comet Leonard, like all comets, is a massive rock of ice and organic matter. Eighty thousand years will have to go by before the comet makes another close approach on Earth.
Comets increase speeds from 26 miles per second to almost 300 miles per second as they come closer to the Sun. The closer they get, the hotter they become, and their icy snowball nucleus begins to vaporize. This gives comet’s their characteristical shape called tail and coma. In addition, studies have revealed that the water present in comets resembles that of the water of oceans on Earth. This has been the basis for theories that assure comets seed water and organic molecules on planets.
Comet expert Quanzhi Ye, who followed comet Leonard for months, said that the comet was dimming and unhealthy as it passed Earth. “If it’s not getting brighter, then something’s wrong, but we don’t know exactly what at this stage,” Quanzhi Ye from the University of Maryland told Space.com. Comet Leonard was first discovered in January 2021 when it was spotted as a smudge moving near Mars. No one is sure why the comet faded, but Ye said that it is probably fragmenting, although it shouldn’t be.
Comets’ Unpredictable Ways
Comets are usually torn apart as they approach the Sun in what is known as perihelion. The comets that make it through the rough ride near the Sun become “Great Comets” and go down in astronomical history. But comets behave erratically, and predictions of what they will do are often mistaken.
In May this year, Ye described in a paper how another comet, ATLAS, stayed faithful to the unpredictable behavior of comets. ATLAS was spotted in 2019 and unexpectedly disintegrated in 30 tiny ice pieces. What surprised Ye was that the comet was nowhere near the Sun when it broke up into fragments. Digging deeper, Ye and his team discovered that ATLAS was actually a remnant of another larger comet that had passed through our sky over 5,000 years ago. While there is no record of sightings of the comet, it is believed that Stone Age civilizations in North Africa and Eurasia saw the comet torching across the sky.
Ye wrote on Twitter that Leonard, the comet everyone had been waiting to see this year, looked “deflated.” Ye believes its flattened-out gas coma suggested its nucleus is likely fragmenting, despite neither crackings nor fragments being visible. On its approach to Earth, Leonard did precisely the opposite of what comets usually do as they come closer to the Sun. It dimmed out. The comet that was visible even to the naked eye broke all predictions and once again proved that nothing is certain when it comes to comets.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/comet-leonard-pass-earth-scientists-report-strange/