Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Hunting the Green Comet

The green comet, formerly known as comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), comes closest to Earth today, moving in to 26 million miles of this ol' round ball we call home.

A comet is a celestial object consisting of a nucleus of ice and dust and, when near the sun, a “tail” of gas and dust particles pointing away from the sun. Halley's comet is probably the most famous one, as it makes a tour of our solar system every 75 years or so. It was last here in 1986, and I honestly don't remember seeing it although I'm sure I made an effort to do so. The one I remember best was Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. It comes around about every 3,000 years.

The green comet last came through about 50,000 years ago. 

The comet is thought to look green because of the type of gases coming off of it, along with radiation from the Sun.
 
It if was as dim as it is today, I doubt the humanoids who were around 50,000 years ago even noticed. If one of them did, he or she had spectacular eyesight.

I have been trying to see this green comet on the few clear nights we've had but have been unsuccessful in finding it. Mostly, that is because we've only had two clear nights, and we have cloud cover today that is supposed to last all night.

I took this star trail photo whilst trying to find it. I actually left the camera outside and went inside; at some point, the tripod moved. Maybe a gust of wind? At any rate, the wiggle is visible.

But the comet isn't.






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