The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could be bright enough to be spotted with the naked eye as it passes the sun and Earth at the end of the first month of 2023.
the comet has a period of around 50,000 years. This means that prior to it coming to within around 100 million miles of the sun on Jan. 12 and 26 million miles of Earth on Feb. 2, the last time it came so close was during the Upper Paleolithic period on Earth.That means the last humans that could have spotted C/2022 E3 were earlyalive during the last glacial period or"ice age.
Of course, the Neanderthals and early humans wouldn't have known what C/2022 E3 was, and the comet was identified much more recently than the last ice age. The comet was spotted by the wide-field survey camera at theInitially appearing to be an asteroid, C/2022 E3 which was inside the orbit of Jupiter at the time, soon began to brighten as comets do. At the time of its discovery, C/2022 E3 had a magnitude of 17.
Current images of C/2022 E3 show its coma, a surrounding halo of gas and dust, glowing with a greenish hue and a long but faint cometary tail extending from its main body. If you snap the comet C/2022 E3 , and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo, comments, and your name and location to
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