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A comet with a greenish glow will make its close glide slope to Earth since the years of the Neanderthals tonight ( Feb. 1 to 2 ) , and if you see in the ripe place at the proper clock time , you might be able-bodied to spot it .
The comet , sleep with asC/2022 E3 ( ZTF ) , will come up within 26.4 million miles ( 42.8 million kilometre ) of our planet , its closest overture in about 50,000 years , according toEarthSky . The comet has been brightening in the night sky since January and will go between the domain ofMarsandEarthover the next couple of nights , traveling at around 128,500 mph ( 207,000 km / h ) .
Some comets appear to glow green when ultraviolet sunlight vaporizes carbon molecules in the comet’s head
Viewers in the Northern Hemisphere who have a clear view of the Nox sky away from significantlight pollutionwill be able-bodied to spot the comet without a telescope . If you ’re unable to get to a place with clear sky , however , you could still catch the activeness by tune into theVirtual Telescope Project ’s livestreamof the issue , which will start at 11 p.m. EST , or observe here :
To consider the comet , expect to the northern sky between the Big Dipper and the North Star .
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" It ’s the patch of sky like a shot to the right of North , spring between the Dippers , " Ben Burress , an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in California , order KQED . " decent now the comet is between the grownup and Little Dippers . It will look like a small fuzzy patch of light , possibly slightly green . "
Why light-green ? As comets whiz by thesun , the star ’s vim vaporise the comet ’s ices into gas , which organise a coma — a slight , short - lived atmosphere around the bouldered torso . The colour of that coma depends on the physical composition of its gas . In the case of Comet C/2022 E3 , some of that gas contains diatomic carbon , a molecule made up of two fused carbonatoms . When those particle are blast by ultraviolet radiation , they radiate unripened .
Comet C/2022 E3 was discovered in March 2022 by astronomers using the Zwicky Transient Facility in California .
