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                           Astronomy Picture of the Day   
      
       Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our   
         fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation   
                       written by a professional astronomer.   
      
                                 2021 December 27   
      
                      Comet Leonard behind JWST Launch Plume   
              Image 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   
                          Tomorrow's picture: sun of ice   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
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