Only every 50,000 years: Comet E3 visible over Austria

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) can be observed in the night sky these days. Binoculars help, in very dark conditions it could even be seen with the naked eye from January 24th to February 6th. It will be closest to Earth on February 1, 2023 Constellation giraffe to reach.

The comet with its greenish coma (nebulous envelope) was discovered almost a year ago at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) at the Palomar Observatory in California (USA). Astronomers expect it to reach its maximum brightness in late January.

In order to avoid disturbing moonlight and due to the predicted brightness development, Alexander Pikhard from the Vienna Working Group for Astronomy recommends lying in wait in the days before the new moon (January 21st) until around half moon (January 28th). “In the evening it is still quite far north, but appears high in the sky from north to north-east from around midnight,” says Pikhard. When searching, help to orientate oneself to the constellation “Little Dipper” with the North Star.

Comets are considered to be remnants of the formation of our solar system around 4.6 billion years ago. Made of a mixture of ice, dust and rock, they are compared to dirty snowballs. The ice not only contains frozen water, but also carbon dioxide (“dry ice”), methane and ammonia.

• Live comet location on theskylive.com
• Video explaining how to find the comet:

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