‘Green comet’ returns after 50,000 years, don’t miss it if you can

New Delhi: A recently discovered green comet, appearing after 50,000 years, will be visible from earth around February 2, astronomers say.

Named as C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet might be visible to the naked eyes under clear night sky, NASA reportedly said.

It was named after the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in the US for discovering the comet using a wide-field survey camera in March 2022.

The comet is now moving on its own orbit away from the Sun after having approached it in January.

“The orbit indicates it comes from the edge of our solar system, a distant reservoir of comets we call the Oort cloud.”

ZTF’s co-principal investigators including Tom Prince and Michael Kelley said that the comet’s orbit suggests “It comes from the edge of our solar system, a distant reservoir of comets we call the Oort cloud”.

The Oort cloud is a rather a big spherical region of outer space around the sun.

The region is consisting of large number of objects including comets and asteroids.

The green comet is believed to be at a distance of 2.5 light minutes from Earth, which could be better put as 27 million miles.

The comet has greenish hue hence it is called green comet and it emits a whitish light from its tail.

The green light can be explained from the nature of its composition, and comets are frozen rocky or gas-filled objects. They are remnants of formation of the solar system.

You can watch the comet better using telescopes and binoculars, while naked eyes are enough to spot it under dark skies.

If you are observing it from Northern Hemisphere, you will see it in the morning sky as it heads towards northwest in January.

Those watching it from India will spot it above horizon in the Bootes constellation in the northwest direction. Watch it this time, because it will become back only after 50,000 years.