Keep your eyes on the skies this weekend, as you may see a sight that is literally out of this world.
Comet C/2021 A1 – better known as Leonard – will be a sight to behold for stargazers and it is predicted to be the brightest comet of 2021.
Leonard has been on an incredible 35,000-year journey across deep space to get to us, and will not be back in our solar system for another 80,000 years (provided it doesn’t get too close to the sun).
It was discovered at the beginning of the year by researcher Greg Leonard from Arizona’s Mount Lemmon Observatory.
But where is Leonard now, and at what point this weekend will he be at his brightest?
Where is Comet Leonard now?
Leonard is travelling at an incredible 158,000 miles per hour, getting closer to Earth with each passing second.
At the time of writing, it was over 36 million kilometres away from the Earth as it passed the Serpens constellation situated close to the celestial equator.
You can keep track of Leonard’s progress in real-time via theskylive.com.
Leonard even has its own Twitter account with regular updates about its deep-space journey – who knew outer space offered such a good data plan?
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