Ajit Karn
This week, stargazers should see the green comet that has been hiding in the night sky for months as it slowly passes Earth for the first time in nearly 50,000 years.
Space alien will pass Earth at a distance of around 26.4 million miles (42.5 million km).
The nature of comets and this one in particular are discussed below.
WHAT ARE COMETS?
Comets, dubbed “dirty snowballs” by astronomers, are balls of ice, dust, and rocks that originate from the Oort cloud, a ring of icy material at the boundary of our solar system. One known comet, 2I/Borisov, originated from outside the solar system.
A comet’s solid core of rock, ice, and dust is surrounded by a thin and gassy atmosphere of additional ice and dust, known as a coma. They release a stream of gas and dust pushed from their surface by solar radiation and plasma, generating a hazy and outward-facing tail as they approach the sun and melt.
When various gravitational forces dislodge comets from the Oort cloud, they travel into the inner solar system, becoming more noticeable as they approach the sun’s heat. Each year, fewer than a dozen comets are discovered by observatories around the globe.
This comet last passed by Earth during a time when Neanderthals still inhabited Eurasia, our species was expanding beyond Africa, large Ice Age creatures such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats roamed the planet, and northern Africa was moist, fertile, and rainy.
Thomas Prince, a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology, asserts that the comet’s formation in the early phases of the solar system can provide insight into its origins.
HOW COME THE COMET “C/2022 E3 (ZTF)” IS GREEN?
C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the green comet, was found by scientists using the Zwicky Transient Facility telescope at Caltech’s Palomar Observatory in San Diego on March 2, 2022. Its greenish, emerald tint is a result of a collision between sunlight and carbon-based molecules in the coma of the comet.
NASA intends to observe the comet with its James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which may reveal insight into the creation of the solar system.
Stefanie Milam, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, explained, “We will be searching for the fingerprints of specific compounds that are inaccessible from Earth.” Because JWST is extremely sensitive, additional discoveries are anticipated.
HOW CAN ONE SEE GREEN COMET?
On a clear night, the comet can be observed in the northern sky using binoculars. It emerged between the Big Dipper and Polaris, the North Star, on Monday. And on Wednesday, it was positioned to appear close to Camelopardalis, a constellation surrounded by Ursa Major, the Big Dipper, and the Little Dipper.
Finding a secluded place to prevent light pollution in populated areas is essential for obtaining a clear view of the comet as it passes our planet on its path away from the sun and back to the solar system’s furthest regions.
Also read:- As the air quality in Delhi-NCR has gotten better, Stage II GRAP restrictions have been lifted.
A green comet called C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is set to pass by Earth for the first time in 50,000 years on February 1.
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