NASA shared a stunning photo of Comet Leonard soaring behind the plume from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope launch 12/25/2021.

Spaceweather.com December 26, 2021 - Something unusual happened to Comet Leonard's tail. It's being disconnected. About halfway down the picture a dense plume of gas appears. It looks like a 'tail within a tail.' This could be a disconnection event: A piece of the tail has been pinched off and is being carried away by the solar wind.

What could cause such an event? Space weather. CMEs or even ordinary solar wind streams hitting comets can cause magnetic reconnection in the comets' ionized tails, sometimes ripping them off entirely. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft watched this happen to Comet Encke in April 2007. Alternately, this could could be a knot of debris from a recent outburst in the comet's core.

Comet Leonard has flared in brightness 3 times since Dec. 15th--a sign of possible fragmentation. Much of the structure in the tail is doubtless an imprint of Comet Leonard's rapid-fire instabilities. Whatever is happening, get ready for more. Comet Leonard is approaching the sun for a 0.61 AU close approach on Jan. 3rd. Increasing heat and proximity to solar storms could spark new outbursts and disconnection events.