A 'DISCONNECTION EVENT' IN COMET LEONARD:
Something unusual is happening to the tail of Comet Leonard. It's being disconnected. To see the break, scroll down this picture taken by Gerald Rhemann on Christmas Day:
About halfway down the picture, right here, a rupture appears. This is a disconnection event: A piece of Comet Leonard's tail has been pinched off and is being carried away by the solar wind.
Blame space weather. CMEs hitting comets can cause magnetic reconnection in comet tails, sometimes ripping them off entirely. NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft watched this happen to Comet Encke in April 2007: movie. Comet Leonard has not experienced a known CME impact, but solar wind streams can do the same thing. At least two high-speed streams have hit the comet in recent weeks–enough to explain the turmoil.
https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=27&month=12&year=2021
Additional link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/see-comet-leonard-and-its-rare-disconnecting-tail-as-it-races-toward-the-sun/ar-AARhyRE