Something unusual is happening to the tail of comet Leonard, which has become the spectacular protagonist of the December sky.An extraordinary photo taken on Christmas day by astrophotographer Gerald Rhemann, in Namibia, shows a real fracture in the middle of the blue trail of the comet: the tail has "broken".Or rather disconnected.About halfway through the image, a break appears.This is a disconnection event: a piece of Comet Leonard's tail has been ripped off and blown away by the solar wind.The responsibility lies with the space weather.Coronal mass ejections (i.e. from the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere) affecting comets can cause magnetic reconnection in comet tails, sometimes tearing them completely apart.NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft saw this very event occur on Comet Encke in April 2007.Comet Leonard is not currently known to have been impacted by a coronal mass ejection, but solar wind streams can do the same thing.At least two high-speed streams have hit the comet in the past few weeks, enough to explain the observed turmoil.Comet Leonard has increased its brightness 3 times since December 15, a sign of possible fragmentation in the comet's core.Much of the tail is undoubtedly an imprint of the comet's very rapid instabilities.Whatever is happening to the comet, it may just be an 'appetizer' of what will happen in the next few days.Comet Leonard, in fact, is approaching the sun, for a close approach of 0.61 AU on January 3.Increased heat and proximity to solar storms could trigger new explosions and ruptures.Southern hemisphere astronomers will have the best view as the comet glides through the constellation of the Microscope.© 2021 MeteoWeb - Publisher Socedit srl - VAT / CF 02901400800