A rare green comet passing through our solar system for the first time in 50,000 years, is estimated to come closest to Earth around February 2.
Key points
- It was discovered in March 2022 by astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California hence it is named as comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).
- It was calculated to orbit the sun every 50,000 years, meaning it last tore past our home planet in the stone age.
- The comet comes from the Oort cloud at the edge of the solar system. The Oort cloud is thought to be a big, spherical region of outer space enveloping our sun, consisting of innumerable small objects, such as comets and asteroids.
- The green glow “is thought to arise from the presence of diatomic carbon – pairs of carbon atoms that are bound together – in the head of the comet.
- The molecule emits green light when excited by the ultraviolet rays in solar radiation. Coming under the category of long-period comets, which take more than 200 years to orbit the Sun, the green comet is not easily spotted.
- With a highly elliptical orbit, the comet will head back to the Oort cloud and make its next appearance roughly 50,000 years later.
- NASA terms it “the most distant region of our solar system” and “Home of the Comets”.
What are Comets?
- Comets are balls of primordial dust and ice that swing around the sun in giant elliptical orbits.
- As they approach the sun, the bodies warm up, turning surface ice into gas and dislodging dust. Together, this creates the cloud or coma which surrounds the comet’s hard nucleus and the dusty tail that accompanies it.
- There are likely billions of comets orbiting our Sun in the Kuiper Belt and even more distant Oort Cloud.
