A comet dubbed C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could become visible to the naked eye very soon. If that happens, you have to take advantage of it. The object will probably never come back to see us afterwards.
2023 begins with a highly publicized new comet, C/2022 E3 (ZTF). This promising comet could become visible to the naked eye. The object passed at perihelion, that is to say closest to the Sun on its trajectory, on January 12. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was then about 160 million km from the star.
The comet continues its crossing of the solar system, now approaching our planet. C/2022 E3 (ZTF) should be closest to us on February 1st. However, the notion of “proximity” must be put into perspective: the comet will then be just over 42 million km from Earth.
The orbit of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is so eccentric that it will probably never return
By the way, this object is not classified as near-Earth object. We speak of near-Earth object to designate comets or asteroids which pass at a short distance from the Earth’s orbit. ” It’s not even considered a ‘near-Earth comet’ because it takes too long — 50,000 years — to orbit the Sun “, underlines the European Space Agency (ESA) in a tweet January 13. ESA adds that C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will certainly not return to the terrestrial surroundings, ” due to its eccentric orbit “.
An eccentricity of 0 is a perfectly circular orbit. An eccentricity of 1 corresponds to a parabolic orbit. For comparison, Earth’s orbit has an eccentricity of 0.0167.
The orbits of the planets are quite circular, compared to those of comets, characterized by their eccentricity. They look more like very elongated ellipses (ovals). However, the latest elements collected on C/2022 E3 (ZTF) suggest that this comet is traveling in a particularly eccentric and even parabolic orbit (with an eccentricity of 1.00027 according to the specialized site Space). This means that the comet’s orbit is not closed. After having passed close to the Sun, it should therefore go back into space and never return.
If the comet becomes visible without an instrument in the next few days, it will therefore be necessary to take advantage of it. If you want to see a little closer to what the comet looks like, you can also follow a live event organized by the Virtual Telescope Project. However, you have to be well motivated, because it starts from 5 a.m. on Saturday January 14. Originally, it was planned to broadcast this live on January 13, but the cloud cover forced a postponement.
