Why Came after green comet tonight after 50000 years?
The “green comet”. which had not visited us for 50,000 years, will be at its closest point to Earth on February 1st. At 40 million kilometers, so barely visible to the naked eye, but enough to be observed, in the northern hemisphere, with a simple pair of binoculars.
Many now call it a “green comet” – rather than C/2022 E3 (ZTF), its real name – because of the greenish coloration given to it, in photos, by the clouds of carbon gases that, due to the heat of the Sun, escape from its nucleus.
And it’s called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) because it’s the third comet discovered during the “E” period (the first half of March) of 2022, by an instrument called Z.T.F. (Zwicky Transient Facility), installed at California’s Mount Palomar Observatory. It is a camera with a wide enough field of view to scan the entire sky of the northern hemisphere every other day.
How to view C/2022 E3 (ZTF) near earth comet
near earth comet: In March 2022, this comet was already closer to the Sun than Jupiter (600 million km), and was 25,000 times less visible than the star least visible to the naked eye, the ZTF team estimated at the time. On January 12, it passed closest to the Sun. It is therefore moving away from it and it is in this context that, on 1 February, it will be closest to us.
Although it is said to be “barely” visible to the naked eye, it is still a little, provided you move away from the lights of the city. We must look north, roughly in the direction of the North Star: in the last days of January, it will be about halfway between the “cup” of the Big Dipper and the North Star. Astronomy software can help locate it, depending on where you are, by searching for it under its real name.
It will be lower on the horizon in the early evening, so the chances of seeing it could be higher a few hours later. But in any case, for anyone who lives north of 35 degrees latitude, it’s been somewhere in the sky pretty much all night, since January 22.
That being said, all astronomers questioned on this subject in recent days advise amateurs to arm themselves with a pair of binoculars, as modest as it is… and a little patience: the Moon being in its increasing phase, the light it reflects from the Sun can interfere with observations.
Where did this comet come from green comet visible tonight?
Its very elongated trajectory suggests that it comes from the Oort cloud, this immense expanse beyond the limits of our solar system. Considering the distance this represents, astronomers estimate that its last visit to our area could be 50,000 years ago. However, this is a very rough estimate; and as for its future trajectory, considering how close that orbit has brought it to the Sun—and the gravitational momentum it will give it—there’s a possibility that its next visit will only be a million years away. Or even, that the comet escapes the attraction of our Sun and continues its course towards the stars.
The greenish color is not a phenomenon unique to this visitor: on the one hand, a comet being above all a large snowball, each time one of them approaches the Sun, the heat melts some of it, causing clouds of gas. On the other hand, comets are partly composed of diatomic carbon (C2, or two bonded carbon atoms), and it is it that gives this green color when the gas escapes.
