Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) as seen through a telescope, Dec. 24, 2022. (Photo – Dan Bartlett)
A comet from the outer Solar System will be passing close to Earth for the first time in 50,000 years, and you might just be able to see it.
By Kate Howells
Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) — still without a snappy nickname — is already visible using a telescope, but as it approaches Earth it is expected to get brighter and easier to see. The comet will reach its closest point to the Sun on Jan. 12, 2023, after which it will continue on past Earth. The comet will be closest to us on Feb. 1, at a distance of about 42 million kilometers (26 million miles). In the weeks surrounding its closest approach it may be visible with the naked eye or with binoculars.
Observers in the Northern Hemisphere will have the best chance of spotting the comet if they look in the northwestern skies before dawn. Without a telescope, Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) will most likely look like a faint, greenish smudge in the sky rather than a bright object, and isn’t likely to have a dramatic, visible tail. But it’s still worth checking out. This comet takes around 50,000 years to orbit from the outer reaches of the Solar System in toward the Sun, so an opportunity to see it will only come once in a lifetime.
Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility’s wide-field survey camera at the Palomar Observatory in California in early March 2022.
The position of the Comet in the night sky on Feb. 1, 2023, as seen from Pasadena (Photo – Planetary Society/Stellarium)
Source: Planetary Society. Edited by Ann Hunnewell
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