He Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), discovered in March of last yearIt has been seen by amateur astronomers in the sky with the naked eye.
He celestial body it was discovered by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility’s Wide Field Survey Camera. Since then, the new long-period comet – it completes its orbit around the Sun in about 50,000 years – has considerably suspected its brightness and is now sweeping the northern constellation Corona Borealis in the pre-dawn skies, NASA reports.
On his journey inside the Solar systemcomet 2022 E3 hovered in the perihelion, its closest point to the sun, on January 12 and at perigee, its closest point to our planet, on the 1st and 2nd of this month. Comet brightness is notoriously unpredictable, but by then C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could be visible naked eye in dark night skiesreports the space agency.
This February 1, on its return trip to the confines of the Solar System, the comet reached its minimum distance from Earth and also its maximum brightness. Hence it was visible a plain view from anywhere in the world, also from Spain.
However, if you haven’t stopped to see it yet, you can still do it this week: in Spain it will still be visible until Sunday. The comet can be seen with the naked eye in the coming nights directly from various points on Earth. To do this, you just have to wait for night to fall and look for it in the night sky.
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Although the nights of the closest approach to Earth have already passed (which were February 1 and 2), you can still see a simple view, albeit with less intensity.
And the recommendation is that you do it, since the last time it passed near the globe was a few years ago. 50,000 years ago, in the Upper Paleolithic.
#LastWorld.
Check out the photo of the unusual green comet that was visible for the first time in 50,000 years.
This is the passage of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), better known as the «green comet», which approached Earth for the first time in 50,000 years. pic.twitter.com/UAOpsOJhT3– Radio Acer Bolivia (@RedAcerOficial) February 2, 2023