The mile-wide space rock looks to have shattered in late February, preventing Comet Leonard from undertaking its next 80,000-year tour around the Sun.
Leonard, also known as Comet C/2021 A1, approached the Sun near 56 million miles (90 million kilometers) during perihelion.
During perihelion, Earth approaches the star at 91 million miles (147 million kilometers).
Leonard was sparked to life by the Sun's warmth, which caused it to emit gas and dust, but the comet's journey through the inner solar system proved to be its demise.
Gizmodo said scientists using NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory-A (STEREO-A) and the Solar Orbiter, a NASA-ESA cooperative project, examined Leonard.
Comets are similar to snowflakes in that no two behave the same way, and they're nearly impossible to anticipate.
Comet Leonard Showed Outburst Before Dying
Gregory Leonard of the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, who discovered the comet, said that the comet's legacy was the tail structures made up of charged particles known as ions.
After seeing the comet on Jan. 3, 2021, Leonard said the tail was subjected to dramatic outburst-induced displays.
"Otherworldly and astonishing are the only descriptions that come to mind when I began viewing the images being posted online by a handful of dedicated expert astrophotographers, particularly after Dec. 19, 2021, when the comet began undergoing strong periodic outburst activity," Leonard told EarthSky.
Even if the comet had made it around the Sun, it would have been hurled into intergalactic space, never to be seen again. But it wasn't meant to be. In late November, there was a false alarm that the comet was displaying indications of stress.
Why Comet Leonard Disintegrated
Space.com said observers, mostly amateur astronomers who closely observe and photograph these phenomena, began to question if the comet was disintegrating.
Many signs of odd activity triggered this warning, including the change in comet's brightness which decreased, the change of the shape of its head that used to be round, and it appeared to be deviating off track.
However, these circumstances did not cause the comet to disintegrate.
Moonlight and light pollution at the observers' location influenced the brightness estimation, restricting the magnitude of the coma.
Furthermore, although it could not have been expected at the time, additional investigation of the nucleus revealed that it was not splitting up.
EarthSky stated that by the time the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams released Electronic Telegram #5077 on Dec. 2, the "veering off course" didn't appear to be the case.
Daniel Green (who sent the telegram) said some recent sightings did not precisely trace the comet's trajectory.
Green also stated that the comet's brightness estimates were correct regarding the comet being intact during its orbit around the Sun.
However, in the weeks leading up to perihelion, Comet Leonard's brightness fluctuated every three to five days.
The comet's tail began to take on a more intricate form, presumably due to bits of the nucleus breaking off and exposing new places for the Sun to burn.
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