A video of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was taken earlier this month, approximately two weeks after the ice ball’s closest approach to Earth, by Japan’s cubesat EQUULEUS, which traveled to the moon aboard NASA’s Artemis 1 mission in November of last year. Rare red auroras over the US are trending! Best Drones: Solar System Planets night sky tonight Russia-Ukraine War Space Impacts Best Telescopes Best Star Projectors Next Full Moon Space Calendar: Best Binoculars Lego Star Wars deals Artemis 1 updates Best Drones: Solar System Planets
Table of Contents
Tereza Pultarova’s video of a green comet seen from space by the Artemis 1 moon mission cubesat was published approximately 10 hours ago. On February 12, nearly two weeks after the ice ball made its closest approach to Earth, the cubesat captured Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
The Japanese Equuleus cubesat that is circling the moon captured an image of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
The Japanese Equuleus cubesat, which orbits the moon, observed comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) moving through the sky on February 12. Image source: Equuleus Project Team This month, approximately two weeks after the ice ball’s closest approach to Earth, Japan’s cubesat EQUULEUS captured a video of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) aboard NASA’s Artemis 1 mission.
The comet—also known as the green comet because of its color or the Neanderthal comet because it hasn’t visited Earth since the time of the Neanderthals—can be seen as a fuzzy white dot moving across a black-and-white background dotted with stars.
“Comet ZTF (Comet C/2022 E3) was successfully photographed by Equuleus from space!” The EQUULEUS team stated in a tweet (opens in new tab) that was sent along with the image sequence that was shared on February 21. On February 12, the University of Tokyo and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) constructed the 6U cubesat, which imaged the comet for six hours.
The cubesat was located approximately 43 million miles (69.5 million kilometers) away from the comet and 211,000 miles (340,000 kilometers) away from Earth at the time. In the tweet, the team stated, “These series of images were taken by calculating the timing and direction from the relative orbits of the comet and Equuleus.” The mission is testing low-energy propulsion techniques, including a low-thrust water propulsion system that uses very little propellant to control the spacecraft’s trajectory.
At Lunar Lagrange Point 2, which is approximately 38,000 miles (61,347 kilometers) behind the moon on the side away from Earth, Equuleus is currently sailing toward the point that is gravitationally stable in the Earth-moon system.
The shuttle likewise conveys sensors to make estimations of Earth’s plasmasphere, the internal district of the magnetosphere two or three thousand miles over the planet that contains cool plasma—gas in which molecules have been deprived of electrons. Concerning Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the object is still visible in the sky with amateur telescopes, but as it hurtles back toward the outer solar system, where it came from, it is rapidly fading.
Although some astronomers believe that it will return to Earth and the sun in 50,000 years, others fear that the gravitational kick it received from our life-giving star could throw it out of the solar system entirely.
