Rare Green Comet Makes Closest Pass To Earth On Feb. 2

A rare green comet identified as C/2022 E3 that last passed by Earth about 50,000 years ago is coming around again and will make its closest pass on February 2, at which point it may be visible with the naked eye, Leah Crane reported for the New Scientist.

Photo Insert: The biggest comet from the outer solar system ever seen is 137 kilometers wide, C/2022 E3 was first spotted by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility in California in March 2022.

The comet spends most of its time on the outermost edges of the solar system, in the Oort cloud. The close pass will bring the comet within about 45 million kilometers of Earth, about 120 times the distance between Earth and the moon or about one-fifth the average distance to Mars.

It only orbits the sun once every 50,000 years or so, so its last pass by our home planet was in the Stone Age.

Those early humans may have been able to see C/2022 E3 in the sky, and it is expected to be possible with this pass too, in areas in the northern hemisphere with little light pollution.

It is located near the constellation Boötes, just to the east of the Little Dipper, and on February 1 and 2, it might be visible with the naked eye.

With a telescope, binoculars, or a camera with the option for extended exposure, it is expected to remain visible through the middle of the month before it slips away back towards the Oort cloud.

The biggest comet from the outer solar system ever seen is 137 kilometers wide, C/2022 E3 was first spotted by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility in California in March 2022, when it came into the solar system past the orbit of Jupiter.

Its coma, the cloud of gas surrounding the main body, or nucleus, of the comet, appears green because of carbon gas. It’s not just any carbon, though – it is a relatively rare type called diatomic carbon, which consists of two carbon atoms bound together.

Once the strange comet leaves Earth’s neighborhood, observers said that it might be traveling fast enough that it will end up leaving the solar system altogether, or have its orbit bumped around by the gravity of the planets that it won’t pass by again for millions of years.

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