This comet will approach Earth over the next few days and will not return until 50,000 years after this visit.
During the next few days, the green comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will approach Earth after 50,000 years since its last visit. By then Neanderthals inhabited the planet, making it the longest-lived object yet discovered.
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) first observed in early March 2022, was at its closest point to the Sun on January 12, where it was possible to observe it with telescopes from the Northern Hemisphere and it has even been seen with the naked eye in some countries.
However, as it goes around the Solar System it will be possible to see it from the Southern Hemisphere, but will it be visible to the naked eye or do you need support equipment to observe it?
César Fuentes, astronomer at the University of Chile and Researcher at the CATA Astrophysics Center, explains this phenomenon. “The comet will not be visible to the naked eye from Chile. After the first week of February it will only be above the horizon sometime around midnight.. That will increase and it will be more and more to the south, but looking north as the days go by, ”she details.
This is because its brightness will be too low to be seen without an optical aidexplains the expert, so the ideal is to observe it in your peak, between the first and second week of February. “It will be necessary to use binoculars or a telescope and it will be increasingly difficult to observe as it moves further away from Earth and the Sun.“.
A comet that visited the Solar System 50,000 years ago
Faced with this discovery and its passage through the Solar system, many wondered how can a comet go so far and come back, or how can we be sure it was around in the time of the Neanderthals?when there were still no instruments on Earth to detect it.
According to the expert, this is due to the gravitational force of the Sun, since that is where objects like this are formed, as well as planets and asteroids. However, there are factors that could send them quite far.
“When some gravitational interaction arises with a planet like Jupiter -for example- they can be or ejected; or collide with another planet or the Sun itself; or stay with these rather more elliptical orbits, which can take them very far in the Solar System, with very long periods“, Explain.
Its trajectory is also not so complex to elucidate, since it is possible to determine it with just a couple of observations. “One can solve the trajectory or orbit of the objects in the Solar System knowing that the force under which they are linked is the gravitational force of the Sun and that allows, having some observations, to have more certainties about the trajectories”, Fuentes assures.
In addition, From the observations, its color can also be confirmed, which has to do with the gases it emits or releases in its path.. “There are ices that, when they are close to the sun, sublimate and escape, to transform from solid to gaseous, and in doing so they lift material that is on the comet’s surface,” he points out.
“This is done in the vacuum of space and there it is possible for molecules to be formed that have a short life time. In this case, a molecule that matches the characteristics of this green fluorescence, which is excited when it is under ultraviolet light and when it decays it does so with this green light.“he adds.
Astro pop photo I took from #Queretaro #Mexico of the so-called Green Comet C/2022E3(ZTF) It passed 50,000 years ago and could return at that time. Neanderthals saw it. Will there be human beings who see it within those thousands of years? @zwoasi #Takahashi FSD106ED. 20 photos of 60”. pic.twitter.com/scgL5IKqMC
— Sr. Ironman (@Mr_Ironman) January 30, 2023
Is the green comet that will pass close to Earth dangerous?
The expert assures that this encounter with C/2022 E3 (ZTF) in the Solar System does not mean a danger to the planetsince the probabilities of an impact are minimal.
“Most of the objects that end up colliding with the Earth are those that have close orbits, which are around a year and one has a long time to predict where they will be, in 10, 20, or 50 years.” details.
As these objects orbit further away, it is much more difficult to predict or know them in advance, explains the astronomer. “In that clear sense, they are much more dangerous if they appear at all, but they are much less likely to fall to Earth“, he points out.
“Those who have fallen have been close to Earth, but for one to come from afar and fall directly on us is a very, very difficult thing,” he concludes.