Astronomy Picture of the Day · January 3, 2022

Comet Leonard's Long Tail

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for January 3, 2022 is “Comet Leonard's Long Tail,” an image. The picture is copyrighted by its creator (Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Hattenbach). The original explanation runs about 134 words.

The picture shows a Comet Leonard sporting a very long ion tail as captured from the Canary Islands of Spain in late December. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. — Credit: Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Hattenbach Copyrighted Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“You couldn’t see Comet Leonard’s extremely long tail with a telescope — it was just too long. You also couldn’t see it with binoculars — still too long.”

— APOD editors, January 3, 2022

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date: January 3, 2022
Type: Image
Credit: Credit: Image Credit & Copyright: Jan Hattenbach
Copyright: Copyrighted by the credited creator. Ask the copyright holder before reusing it.
Explanation length: About 134 words

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Topics in this entry

Comets

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On this day: January 3 in other years

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Source

Astronomy Picture of the Day, January 3, 2022 — science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2022-january-3-comet-leonards-long-tail

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.