Comets are frozen remains from the formation of the solar system consisting of dust, rock, and ice. They range from a few miles to tens of miles, but as they orbit closer to the Sun, they heat up and spew out gas and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet. As a comet approaches the Sun, its ice and dust begin to evaporate. So when viewed through a telescope, the comet appears dim and has a tail.
In spite of comet Often making close trips to Earth, a particular comet has attracted the attention of astronomers and skywatchers alike. The comet is called Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF) and it is a long-period comet of Oort origin. cloud. The shocking thing about this comet is the last time it came close to Earth; it was sighted by Neanderthals nearly 50000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic.
NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is a stunning shot of Comet ZTF and the trail it left near the Star Polaris. According to NASA, the comet was discovered by astronomers using a wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility in 2022 last March. The image was taken by astrophysicist David Ibarra Gomez with a digital camera attached to a tripod near Ager, Lleida, Spain.
NASA explain
The stars trace concentric arcs around the North Pole in this three-hour night sky, captured with a tripod-mounted digital camera on January 31, near Áger, Lleida, Spain. On that day, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was near its declination in the sky of planet Earth. That places the comet about 10 degrees from Earth’s North Pole, making the comet’s position polar, always above the horizon, from all locations on the planet. The earth above 10 degrees north latitude. In the starting image, the extension of the Earth’s axis of rotation into space is on the left. The North Star outlines a short, bright, concentric arc less than a degree from the North Pole
The trail of Comet ZTF is shown to the right, its apparent motion mainly reflecting the rotation of the Earth like the stars. But towards its closest approach to planet Earth on February 1, the comet is also moving significantly relative to the background stars. Comet ZTF’s diffuse green streak is a quasi-concentric arc that mixes with the tracks as it sweeps across the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis.
