Not Too Late To Spot 'Christmas Comet' Leonard Over Maple Grove

MAPLE GROVE, MN — Keep scanning the skies over Maple Grove to see comet Leonard, which is showing off its tail as it moves closer to the sun in its eons-long orbit.

Leonard has been called the "Christmas comet" due to the timing of its approach. It came closest to Earth on Dec. 12, but you may be able to spot it until the final days of December — though the longer you wait, the more difficult comet Leonard will be to see as it leaves our solar system.

Comets are "notoriously difficult to predict in terms of brightness and visibility," according to NASA. They're brightest when they're nearest to the sun, and its glare makes them difficult to see.

Still, astronomers say comet Leonard (C/2021 A1) could be as spectacular as comet Neowise was in 2020, and skywatchers may be able to see the Christmas comet with small telescopes or binoculars.

"There's a chance it could be bright enough to see with the unaided eye," NASA said in a discussion about spectacles in the December sky, "but again, with comets, you really never know."

The comet came closest to Earth — by close, we mean 21,687,279 miles away — around 9:55 a.m. Dec. 12, a time of day bathed in daylight.

NASA said comet Leonard became an "evening object" after it passed Earth.

Astronomer Gregory J. Leonard discovered the comet that now bears his name on Jan. 3, 2021, from the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory, located in the Santa Catalina Mountains about 17 miles from Tucson, Arizona.

Leonard, a senior research specialist at the observatory, saw a tail — which astronomers say is a promising sign that we're in for a treat as the comet moves ever closer to Earth and the sun.

Comet Leonard was only discovered last year, but the icy ball has been making its way to our planet's solar system since the Paleolithic era.

It started the journey 35,000 years ago, when it was at the far end of its elongated elliptical orbit, called the aphelion, some 325 billion miles from the sun, "enveloped in an almost unimaginably cold environment, hovering just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, the temperature at which all molecular motion stops," according to Space.com.

"Now, Comet Leonard is in the home stretch of what likely will be its very last visit to the sun, and its conglomeration of icy gases like methane, ammonia and water vapor is reacting to the increasing warmth of the sun."

The comet will make its closest approach to the sun around Jan. 3. It will be about 56 million miles away at that point. It will not pass Earth again for 80,000 years, NASA said.