Your once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a green comet named C/2021 A1 — a.k.a. Leonard — is here. Astronomy experts, including the comet’s discoverer, offer tips on when and how to see the comet.
What is Comet C/2021 A1?
Like other comets, Leonard is a ball of frozen gas, rocks and dust. When its orbit brings it close to the sun, the heat causes some of that material to vapourize, which makes it glow and sprout a tail of gas and dust.
Why is this comet causing so much excitement?
While many comets pass through our solar system, few come close enough to the sun or the Earth for us to see them.
This week, it may be possible to see Leonard even without binoculars, the experts said.
“Brighter comets are rare, so it’s definitely worth making an effort to see them,” said Chris Vaughan, an operator at the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ont., and a volunteer with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Vaughan recently posted about Comet Leonard on his Astronomy Skylights blog.
<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astronomy?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Astronomy</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Skylights?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#Skylights</a> for this week, with worldwide content. Clear skies! (image from Gregg Ruppel) <a href=”https://t.co/XmLG81QCth”>https://t.co/XmLG81QCth</a> <a href=”https://t.co/d58Jkl3OL7″>pic.twitter.com/d58Jkl3OL7</a>
Leonard’s discoverer, Greg Leonard, has discovered 13 comets, but said this one feels “like hitting the celestial jackpot,” because of how visible it will be.
“It’s a real dream come true and it’s very, very humbling,” he told CBC’s As It Happens on Dec. 2.
When is the best time to see the comet?
Right now, the comet is visible in the Northern Hemisphere in the eastern sky to people using binoculars from anywhere in Canada in the early morning, he said.
It’s expected to get brighter and closer to the horizon every morning until Saturday, Dec. 11.
Amazing timelapse of comet leonard! <a href=”https://t.co/oZWq3WhbF0″>https://t.co/oZWq3WhbF0</a>
For those who want to see the comet, Vaughan recommends going out in the early morning over the next couple of days, if the sky is clear. He said an area away from city lights, with a clear view of the horizon to the east, would offer the best view. By returning on subsequent mornings, you should be able to notice the change, he said.
If the weather co-operates, Friday and Saturday mornings around 6 a.m. may be the best bets for a good view. At that point, Vaughan said, Leonard should still be high enough that it won’t be blocked by trees and houses or distorted by the atmosphere.
On Sunday, Dec. 12, the comet should make its closest approach to Earth, then disappear the next day for Northern Hemisphere viewers.
It’s expected to return Monday after sunset, as it heads away from the Earth toward the sun, getting fainter over the following weeks.
“But it’ll never get very high above the horizon,” Vaughan said. “The pre-dawn is your best chance [for viewing], the next few days.”
How can you find it in the night sky?
It will be in the eastern sky below and to the left of the bright star Arcturus in the constellation Bootes.
This map of the sky at 6 a.m. (no matter where you are in Canada) shows where to look for Comet Leonard this week. It’s based on a diagram created by Chris Vaughan with the software Stellarium for his blog Astronomy Skylights on his website, AstroGeo. (CBC News)
Justin Anderson, an astro-photographer who lives north of Brandon, Man., managed to capture the comet earlier this week, and said he plans to keep going out to take more photos.
He said he uses mobile apps such as Star Walk and Stellarium that allow you to point your phone up at the sky, show a map of the stars in that region and pinpoint where the comet is expected to be.
“With binoculars, it was pretty difficult to find it, just because the tail is quite dim,” Anderson said.
It’s easier to find with a camera, he said, which is more sensitive to faint objects than our eyes. The camera doesn’t need to be fancy, Anderson said, although zooming in may help.
“Put your camera in that direction and take a photo if you don’t see it,” he said. “You might have to move it a little bit more and take another photo until you do see it. But it is very green on the camera, and you do see a little bit of a tail behind it.”
Pretty excited to have captured a meteor beside <a href=”https://twitter.com/Comet2021a1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Comet2021a1</a> last night! <br>This is a deepscape image at 85mm. <br>Sky: <br>Single 30s, f/3.5, ISO 2000<br><br>Foreground: <br>20 x ISO 12,800, f/3.5, 4s <a href=”https://t.co/VTJapnV1lW”>pic.twitter.com/VTJapnV1lW</a>
As of Dec. 7, Leonard was 46.25 million kilometres away, with a brightness magnitude of 6.9. It will need to reach a magnitude between four and five to be visible in rural areas, Vaughan said,which it is predicted to do this weekend.
The @cometleonard Twitter account provides regular updates on the comet’s magnitude.
I am 46.25 million km away from Earth. You can spot me near the Bootes constellation. My current magnitude is 6.9, so I am NOT VISIBILE to the naked eye yet<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/comet?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#comet</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/cometc2021a1?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#cometc2021a1</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/cometLEONARD?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#cometLEONARD</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/C2021A1?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#C2021A1</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/FollowTheComet?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#FollowTheComet</a>
Magnitude five is dimmer than last year’s Comet NEOWISE, which topped out between magnitude one and two, similar to the North Star, Polaris.
But no one knows if Comet Leonard will follow predictions.
“The only thing consistent about comets is their unpredictability,” said Greg Leonard. “And a famous comet hunter once said comets are like cats. Both have tails and both do precisely what they want.”
Where did Comet Leonard get its name?
Comets are generally named after their discoverers. Greg Leonard works for the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona in Tucson, hunting and tracking near-Earth asteroids.
“On occasion, we stumble into an unknown comet,” he told CBC.
This is actually not the only Comet Leonard. Greg Leonard has discovered 12 other comets — all called Leonard.
But they all have different years, letters and numbers attached.
Greg Leonard poses with the Catalina Sky Survey Telescope, used to find near-Earth asteroids. While doing that, he has found 13 comets, all named after him, including Comet Leonard C/2021a1. (C. Scherer)
On Jan. 3, C/2021 A1 became the first comet discovered this year. The “A” means it was found in the first half of January.
Why do we only get one chance to see it?
Comet Leonard is expected to pass by once and never again.
The comet formed about 4.5 billion years ago and comes from about 550 billion kilometres away, or 3,700 times the distance between the sun and the Earth.
“It’s been inbound toward the inner solar system for the past 35,000 years,” Leonard said.
It’s zooming through space at 70 kilometres per second, he said. “That’s enough speed for it to get flung away from our solar system.”
It may arrive in some other star system millions and millions of years from now.
In the meantime, “just appreciate that this beautiful celestial object is up in the sky,” Leonard said.
“I sure wish everybody clear skies and the opportunity to have a look and see it for themselves.”
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
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“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
The Goldstone radar’s imagery of asteroid 99942 Apophis as it made its closest approach to Earth, in March 2021. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/NSF/AUI/GBO)
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
