On Wednesday 1st and Thursday 2nd February we will meet again an old friend, a green comet that hasn’t crossed the Earth for 50,000 years, when Sapiens and Neanderthals looked together at the same starry sky during the Stone Age.
The Palomar Observatory in California discovered it last March and was able to calculate the timing of its orbit backwards, observing precisely that the orbit of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) completes its revolution around the Sun every 50 thousand years.
How to observe it without a telescope
This object comes from the Oort cloud, at the edge of the solar system, e it will come to “touch” the Earth, so to speak, approaching up to 43 million kilometers (2.5 minutes-light). Approaching the sun the ice that covers it will melt creating a cloud and a dusty and luminescent tail.
Its particular green color is believed to be due to the presence of diatomic carbon, especially around the head. According to experts this celestial body it may even be visible to the naked eye between January 25 and February 7.
Esquire Italia editorial team
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