A recently discovered green comet will pass Earth for the first time in 50,000 years. The last time it was observable in the night sky was during the Stone Age.
Between February 1 and 2, the ice cosmic object will come between 26 million to 27 million miles of Earth and pass by at its closest point.
The February observations
The comet will be visible in the morning sky, according to NASA, for watchers in the Northern Hemisphere. It will be visible to those in the Southern Hemisphere early in February.
On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the green comet will make its closest approach to Earth, a once-in-a-lifetime celestial event that Jack Gallimore, a professor of physics and astronomy at Bucknell University, is investigating and documenting in the Bucknell Observatory.
NASA claims that for a large part of its voyage, the comet has been too faint to be observed without a telescope. Gallimore, who enjoys astrophotography and has access to telescopes, has been tracking the green comet’s path on Instagram under the handle @jgallimo .
At Cincinnati, the green comet was visible to the unaided eye on Wednesday night through a cloudy Tri-State sky as a fuzzy green smudge with a streaking gloomy tail.
By Wednesday night, it had settled in the Camelopardalis constellation, around 50 degrees beyond the northern horizon, a region of the sky that is devoid of bright stars.
At 9:46 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it was 58 degrees over the northern horizon at its highest position in the sky.
Over the coming days, the comet will become smaller as it moves away from the earth and toward the southern horizon.
On Sunday, February 5, it will be near Capella, a prominent star in the constellation of Auriga.
If you can’t make it to the green comet viewing this week, director of the Fleischmann Planetarium Paul McFarlane says he plans to take the telescopes outside on February 10, 2022, following the 7:30 pm performance. At that point, Mars will start to shine a light on the comet.
How did the comet get its name?
As a result of the sheer number of comets, according to Gallimore, many are unnamed. In its place, a code name is given. The letter “A” denotes the first half of January, the letter “B” denotes the second half of January, the letter “E” denotes the first half of March, and a number designates the number of comets discovered, with this comet being the third of 2022. The “C” stands for a comet that will only appear once, and the year “2022” denotes the year of discovery. The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was found using a telescope or an astronomer, and that information is acknowledged in the name’s final component, according to Gallimore.
How can one see the comet?
The comet will be easiest to spot if you look north, traveling between the constellations of Perseus and Auriga.
The waxing gibbous moon, which will be moving across the sky in the evening, could block some of the comet’s light, astronomers warn.
When it was 26 million miles from Earth on Wednesday, it was at its brightest. It traveled at a speed of about 128,500 miles per hour when it passed through the orbits of Mars and Earth. Its tails extend millions of miles behind its nucleus, which is estimated to be around a mile large.
By February 10, it will have made its journey back toward Mars. After that, it will fade from view, not coming back to our Solar System for millions of years.
Tips to find the green comet:
- Step outside after sundown.
- Look for the constellation of the Little Dipper. This will assist you in locating Polaris, often known as the North Star, at the end of the handle.
- The giraffe-shaped constellation Camelopardalis can be seen above the North Star. It is possible to see the green comet in that constellation.
- If you have to search for the comet, try using your peripheral vision.
