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Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett
Explanation:
Comet
C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the
Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March.
Since then the new
long-period
comet
has brightened substantially and is now
sweeping across the northern
constellation Corona Borealis in predawn skies.
It's still too dim to see without a telescope though.
But this fine telescopic image
from December 19 does show
the
comet's
brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and long faint ion tail
stretching across a 2.5 degree wide field-of-view.
On a voyage through
the inner Solar System comet 2022 E3 will be
at perihelion,
its closest to the Sun, in the new year on January 12 and at
perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on February 1.
The brightness of comets is
notoriously
unpredictable, but by then C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
could become only just visible to the eye in dark night skies.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: comet
Publications with words: comet
See also:
- APOD: 2024 April 17 Á Total Eclipse and Comets
- APOD: 2024 April 8 Á The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons Brooks
- Comet Pons-Brooks at Night
- APOD: 2024 March 18 Á Comet Pons Brooks Swirling Coma
- Comet 12P/Pons Brooks in Northern Spring
- Structure in the Tail of Comet 12P/Pons Brooks
- The Snows of Churyumov Gerasimenko