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A recently discovered comet will soon appear in the night sky for the first time in 50,000 years.
Discovered on March 2, 2022 by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility’s Wide Field Survey Camera at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California, the comet will make its closest approach to the Sun on January 12. NASA.
Named C/2022 E3 (ZTF)comets have orbits around the Sun that pass outside the solar system. Planetary Society.
Northern Hemisphere stargazers with telescopes and binoculars will need to look low on the northeastern horizon just before midnight to find it on January 12th. earth sky.
The icy object, which has steadily brightened as it approaches the sun, will then make its closest approach to Earth some 26 million miles (42 million kilometers) away between February 1 and 2, according to EarthSky. am. , observers can spot it near the bright star Polaris, also called the North Star, and should be visible early in the evening.
According to NASA, the comet should be visible in the morning skies for northern hemisphere skywatchers for most of January and in binoculars for southern hemisphere skywatchers in early February.
Depending on how bright it gets over the next few weeks, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) may become visible to the naked eye in dark skies towards the end of January.
Comets can be distinguished from stars by their striped tails of dust and energized particles and the glowing green coma that surrounds them. A coma is an envelope that forms around a comet as it passes near the Sun, and its ice either sublimates or turns directly into gas. This makes the comet appear blurry when viewed with a telescope.
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