For the best chance of seeing a comet, it is best to check online resources for its location and then look up at the sky on a clear night. Unfortunately, atmospheric conditions such as clouds and light pollution can sometimes make it difficult to spot even the brightest comets. Binoculars can also be helpful for getting a better view of a comet. Some comets are so faint that they can only be seen through a telescope, while others are bright enough to be visible to the naked eye. The apparent magnitude of a comet can vary greatly and it is hard to predict because it depends on the comet’s size, shape, and whether or not it will disintegrate as it gets very close to our hot sun. When viewed from Earth, they can appear as fuzzy patches or bright streaks in the night sky. When comets come close to the sun, the solar heat causes their icy surface to vaporize, creating a tail of gas and dust that can be many millions of kilometers long.Ĭomets can be very bright when they are close to the sun, but they are often faint or even invisible when they are farther away. They are usually small, with a nucleus that is only a few kilometers in diameter. For amateur astronomers hoping to catch a glimpse of this rare sight, C/2022 E3 should offer a memorable show.Ĭomets are often described as “dirty snowballs” because they are made up of a mix of dust and ice. Its apparent magnitude, or brightness, is expected to peak at around 6.0, making it slightly brighter than the stars in the Big Dipper. Just a few weeks later, on February 1st 2023, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be at its closest to Earth, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km / 26 million miles). Some amateur astronomers have been able to spot it with their home telescopes and binoculars.Īs this is a relatively new discovery, we do not yet have information about its size or its chemical composition, but we do know that it will pass the perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on January 12, 2023. This comet is currently not very bright, but it is expected to brighten as it approaches the Sun in 2023. ZTF refers to the Zwicky Transient Facility.Number 3 means it was the third discovery made in that half-month.The letter E represents the first half-month of discovery (March),.The letter C means the comet is not periodic.It was initially designated as “ZTF0Nf7” but was later renamed to fit the naming convention for comets: With the help of the ZTF extremely wide-field-of-view camera, the comet was discovered at 4.3 AU (397 million miles / 640 million kilometers) from Earth.Ĭomet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a type of comet known as a long-period comet because it has an orbit that takes more than 200 years to complete. On March 2nd 2022, comet C/2022 E3 was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a robotic sky survey project based at Caltech in Pasadena, California.
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