Posted on 12/27/2021 3:19:19 PM PST by MtnClimber
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.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Cool. Very rare and unique to catch both of them.
The launch plume looks entirely different - background, foreground or from any ground.
BTW, there is a realtime tracker showing the current distance of the Webb Telescope on its flight out to L2. Currently a bit over 250,000 miles from Earth with 600,000 miles to go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFBGNjAP7wg
Excellent link.
Thanks!
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