How to see a green comet from Britain tonight: when C / 2022 E3 will fly past the Earth and when to watch it

The green comet, which hasn’t passed Earth since the Ice Age, will be visible in the night sky over the next few days.

The comet will no longer be visible for the next 50,000 years, giving it a realistic chance of being seen.

It’s called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and was only discovered last year. Here’s everything you need to know about it and how to see it from the UK.

What is a green comet?

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered orbiting Jupiter in March 2022 by the Zwicky Transient Facility, a public-private partnership that studies the night sky.

At first, scientists thought it was an asteroid, but it has since gotten significantly brighter as it passed the northern constellation Northern Corona.

The comet has a green coma — a cloud of gas surrounding an icy rock core — and a yellowish tail. The first photo was taken in December.

This was stated by Bryce Bolin, one of the scientists who discovered the comet. boston sphere The team “secretly hopes it falls apart” because “that’s where the most interesting science is.”

“Comets are the cats of the solar system; They do what they want,” he said.

“Like cats, they are fluffy. Comets have been observed to exhibit peculiar behavior such as fragmentation or disintegration.

“But there is no really strong correlation between the distance from the Sun and the type of decay processes that occur. It can decompose on its way to the sun even before it approaches it, or even after.

How can I see a green comet from the UK?

The comet made its closest approach to the Sun on Thursday, January 12, and will make its closest approach to Earth on Thursday, February 2, when it is 16.4 million miles away, according to NASA.

In late January and early February, the comet should be visible in the night sky, possibly even without equipment on a dark and clear night. However, you can get a better view with binoculars or a telescope.

NASA stated: “Comets are notoriously unpredictable, but if this comet maintains its current trend towards brightness, it will be easy to see with binoculars and it is possible that it will become visible to the naked eye under dark skies.”

A fully obscured new moon could be the perfect dark sky for Saturday, January 21st.

In the UK, in the early hours before sunrise, people must look closer to the northeast horizon to see it.

However, if the conditions are not suitable, you can still see the comet live.

The Virtual Telescope Project hosted a free screencast on their website and YouTube channel on January 12 (4:00 January 13 in the UK).

Preston Dyches of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in the video, “This comet is not expected to be as much of a spectacle as comet Neowise in 2020.

“But it’s still a great opportunity to make a personal connection with an icy visitor from a solar system far, far away.”