Americans will soon be able to see a comet that had previously approached Earth during the Ice Age
'03.01.2023'
Nadezhda Verbitskaya
In early 2023, a newly discovered comet will visit Earth. And it can be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. Space.
The comet, named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is currently transiting the inner solar system. It will approach the Sun on January 12th. And then it will pass by the Earth, passing closest to our planet between February 1 and 2.
If the comet continues to brighten, as it does now, it may be visible in dark skies to the naked eye. It's hard to predict for comets, but even if C/2022 E3 (ZTF) dims, it should still be visible with binoculars or a telescope for a few days.
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According to NASA, observers in the Northern Hemisphere will be able to see the comet in the morning sky in late January. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will become visible to observers in the Southern Hemisphere in early February 2023.
Sky lovers, look for C/2022 E3 (ZTF) when the Moon is not too bright. The new moon on January 21 will create just such an opportunity. According to website Starlust, the comet will be in the constellation Camelopardalis during its approach to Earth.
NASA estimates that a comet passes Earth every 50 years. It will be approximately within 000 million kilometers from the Sun on January 160th and 12 million kilometers from the Earth on February 42nd. The last time it came this close was during the Upper Paleolithic period on Earth.
This means that the last people who could notice C/2022 E3 (ZTF) were early homo sapiens living during the Ice Age.
Of course, early people didn't understand what C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was. And the comet was identified much later than the Ice Age. The comet was spotted with a wide-angle camera at the Zwicky Transitional Object in early March 2022.
Initially, it was mistaken for an asteroid. But soon it began to shine with light, as comets do. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) had a stellar luminosity of 17,3 at the time of its discovery, rising to luminosity 10 in November. It is expected to reach luminosity 6 eventually.
Current C/2022 E3 (ZTF) images show that the comet's halo of gas and dust glows greenish, creating a long but faint tail.
