A comet that was discovered not even a year ago is at the edge of our solar system and will likely make its first and only appearance on Earth, reveals a CBS News report.
The comet dubbed C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has travelled billions of kilometres, and was first discovered in March 2022 while it passed Jupiter’s orbit. Astronomers are of the belief that it’s a long-period comet that possibly originated in the Oort Cloud.
NASA said in a statement, "Most known long-period comets have been seen only once in recorded history because their orbital periods are so, well, long. Countless more unknown long-period comets have never been seen by human eyes. Some have orbits so long that the last time they passed through the inner solar system, our species did not yet exist."
According to Jessica Lee, an astronomer with the Royal Observatory Greenwich, in a conversation with Newsweek, there isn’t an estimate on how far it’ll get from Earth yet. The estimates vary, however its return also won’t be for at least 50,000 years. However, some predictions also hint that the orbit of this comet is so dynamic that it’s no longer in a particular orbit, thus chances are it’s not going to return at all and keep going till it eventually fizzes out.?
The comet is expected to make its closest approach to the sun on January 12 and us Earthlings will be able to catch a glimpse of this rare comet on February 2.
Astrophotographer Dan Bartlett was able to capture an image of the comet in December from his backyard in California and he could see detailed tail structure in the comet’s plasma tail. If the comet’s conditions continue on this trend, NASA states that one could easily spot the comet using binoculars. If you live in a place with minimal city lights, you could even see it from the naked eye.
NASA statement concluded stating, "This comet isn't expected to be quite the spectacle that Comet NEOWISE was back in 2020. But it's still an awesome opportunity to make a personal connection with an icy visitor from the distant outer solar system."
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