The once-in-a-lifetime green comet threatens FOMO sufferers everywhere tonight
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For one night only! Meet C/2022 E3 (her friends call her the green comet for short).
Who is she? A potentially unprecedented celestial happening. So trade in your typical evening blue light for some green light instead. It's a connection to history and the galaxy that won't try to sell you something.
C/2022 E3 is a comet marked by its bright green nucleus and long faint ion tail.
It was discovered in March 2022, and has been visible by telescope. But tonight, the comet is poised to be most visible to the naked eye in the northern hemisphere as it passes by.
This could be the first time ever (or at the very least in thousands of years) that the comet will cross paths with Earth. And you get to watch!
What's the big deal? We know very little about C/2022 E3, but it appears that its long orbit takes it from the outer expanses of the solar system and then in towards the sun, according to The Planetary Society.
It was discovered at the Zwicky Transient Facility on Palomar Mountain in California by astronomers Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci.
Tonight, we get to see it from a mere 26.4 million miles away. That's the closest it will come to Earth on its trip.
This comet hasn't been this close since the Paleolithic era. You'll be seeing the same colors in the sky as some long-gone but never-forgotten little freaks like this dude.
What are people saying?
"If C/2022 E3 has ever passed through the solar system before, it would have last been seen in the sky more than 10,000 years ago."
— Jon Giorgini, a senior analyst at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told NPR
"You can find the comet by looking south of the Big Dipper, near the constellation Camelopardalis. If you can find the North Star, you can then trace directly south of that to that."
— Bryce Bolin, one of the astronomers who discovered the comet, told the Washington Post
So, what now? Your best bet to see the comet will be between Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 1-2. The glow will be most visible against the night sky, but that might vary based on how overcast your region is.
Spectators in the northern hemisphere may start to see the comet's faint glow in the morning sky, according to NASA. In the following days, the southern hemisphere may get a better chance at their turn.
The comet may gain enough energy to fling out of our solar system, or it might remain bound to its elliptical orbit for another trip around the sun, says Giorgini.
You can bask in the hazy green glow, and relish in the comfort that even if you don't file your taxes in time, the green comet will still be soaring out there, for many more years.
Learn more
Here's the how and the what on the green comet, by Juliana Kim
Read about a new friendly face NASA scientists observed on the moon, by Giulia Heyward
Time is weird, and Shortwave is here to explain why
[Copyright 2023 NPR]
