COMET LEONARD’S METEOR SHOWER ON VENUS
Comet Leonard may be sparking meteor showers on Venus this weekend during a relatively close approach to the planet. Comet C/2021 A1, also known as Comet Leonard, was discovered in January 2021 by Gregory J. Leonard of the Mount Lemmon Infrared Observatory in Arizona. Its close pass of Venus this weekend gives skywatchers a marker in the evening sky to help spot the comet, which is at binocular visibility from Earth and may be just barely bright enough to be visible to the naked eye under clear, dark skies.
At Venus, though, the story is different. The orbit of the planet and the comet will come within 31,000 miles of each other, equivalent to the geosynchronous satellite orbital path above Earth. Comet Leonard is a once-in-a-lifetime comet for stargazers, as its orbit takes about 80,000 years to round the Sun. Given the thick cloud cover on Venus, watching a meteor shower at the planet would require you to be 35 to 40 miles above the surface, where the temperature and pressure are somewhat similar to Earth. Recent research suggests that the best scenario for a meteor shower occurs as Venus goes through the comet’s trail, but it would require very high activity from the comet.