Comet Leonard seen by SoloHI

The Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) captured an animated sequence of images 17-19 December that shows comet Leonard streaking diagonally across the field of view with the Milky Way as a stunning backdrop. Venus and Mercury are also visible in the top right, Venus appearing brighter and moving from left to right.

The comet is currently on its inbound journey around the Sun with its tail streaking out behind. When SoloHI recorded these images, the comet was approximately between the Sun and the spacecraft, with its gas and dust tails pointing towards the spacecraft. Toward the end of the image sequence, our view of both of the tails improves as the viewing angle at which we see the comet increases, and SoloHI gets a side-on view of the comet. A faint coronal mass ejection front is also visible moving from the right hand side of the frame in the final moments of the movie.

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