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There was great excitement among the experts – following all, this is a special event, a very special one. Only in 50,000 years will the Green Comet – also known as C/2022 E3 – come this close to Earth once more. So the Bork amateur astronomer Wolfgang Zimmermann took the opportunity and photographed the celestial body.
“The weather conditions were better than in the days before and the time window was a bit larger. I managed to take this snapshot during test shots in the twilight. A satellite track ends just before the comet,” says Zimmermann, describing the image.
Background: According to the German Aerospace Center, the comet’s green color is caused by an interaction between a gas and the heat of the sun when the comet comes close to the sun. Only the sun’s heat causes the comet to glow – without this glow we would not even recognize it in the darkness of space.
The great thing: In addition to the Green Comet, another celestial body is clearly visible in Zimmermann’s picture. “The conspicuous yellow star (right) belongs to the constellation Auriga and has the proper name Hassaleh,” explains the expert. Hassaleh is regarding 500 light-years away in the constellation Auriga. “The star bears the historical proper names Hassaleh or Kabdhilinan, from Arabic ‘ankle of the rein holder’.”
