Comet C2022 E3 ZTF February 2023

Also Known as: Comet C/2022 ZTF

Object Type: Non-periodic comet

Comet Background: A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing.
This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and sometimes a tail of gas and dust gas blown out from the coma. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the outstreaming solar wind plasma acting upon the nucleus of the comet.
Comet nuclei range from a few hundred meters to tens of kilometers across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles.
The coma may be up to 15 times Earth's diameter, while the tail may stretch beyond one astronomical unit.
If sufficiently close and bright, a comet may be seen from Earth without the aid of a telescope and can subtend an arc of up to 30° (60 Moons) across the sky. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many cultures and religions.
Comets usually have highly eccentric elliptical orbits, and they have a wide range of orbital periods, ranging from several years to potentially several millions of years.
Short-period comets originate in the Kuiper belt or its associated scattered disc, which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Long-period comets are thought to originate in the Oort cloud, a spherical cloud of icy bodies extending from outside the Kuiper belt to halfway to the nearest star.
Long-period comets are set in motion towards the Sun by gravitational perturbations from passing stars and the galactic tide.
Hyperbolic comets may pass once through the inner Solar System before being flung to interstellar space.
The appearance of a comet is called an apparition.

Discovered by: Astronomers Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci discovered C/2022 E3 (ZTF) using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey, which uses the 1.2-m f/2.4 Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory, on 2 March 2022

Description: C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a non-periodic comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on 2 March 2022.
The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus, due to the effect of sunlight on diatomic carbon and cyanogen.
The comet's designation starts with C to indicate that it is not a periodic comet, and "2022 E3" means that it was the third comet to be discovered in the first half of March 2022.
The comet nucleus was estimated to be about a kilometer in size. Its tails of dust and gas extended for millions of kilometers and, during January 2023, an anti-tail was also visible.

Click Below Image(s) for Full Size:

The comet reached its perihelion on 12 January 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km; 103 million mi), and the closest approach to Earth was on 1 February 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km; 26 million mi).
The comet reached magnitude 5 and was visible with the naked eye under moonless dark skies.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

Imaging Details


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