CAIRO - 16 January 2023: Observers in Egypt and the Arab world are preparing to monitor the developments of the comet C / 2022 E3 (ZTF), which is now sailing through the inner part of the solar system, which is said to be the Best comet in 2023.
They start observing the best comet of 2023 in January and February..it visits Earth once every 50,000 years..it reaches its closest distance from Earth in early February..and astronomical research monitors the rare green comet from Kattameya
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed, in a report, that the comet reached perihelion on Thursday, January 12, when it will be at a distance of 166,053,636 km from the sun, after which it will revolve around the sun and will reach its closest distance from Earth on Wednesday, early February.
The comet was discovered in March 2022 by the Zwicky System (ZTF), which scans the entire northern hemisphere sky every two days from the Palomar Observatory in California. So many other comets have the acronym ZTF in their names because they were discovered by the same facility.
The comet started its long journey from the outer regions of the solar system from inside the Oort cloud, and although approaching the sun can make some comets brighter, at perihelion, this comet will be at a distance of 106,214,488 kilometers from Earth, which means that it will probably not reach the limits of visibility. with the naked eye at this time.
After the comet approaches the sun, its brightness is supposed to increase and become brighter until the end of the month. It is expected that the comet’s brightness will reach its peak in early February, when it will approach Earth and be at a distance of 41,887,404 km from our planet.
The comet is currently observed in the Arab world in the early morning, a few hours before dawn, and its luminosity is now about (+7), which makes it easily seen through binoculars or any small telescope, and if the comet brightens to (+6), it will be visible to the naked eye under the conditions perfect.
The comet appears in the pictures in green, which is because its nucleus releases diatomic carbon, which is a common gaseous substance in the coma of comets.
By the time the comet passes near the Earth in February, it will be in front of the stars of the giraffe, and during this week the comet will shine from the northeast horizon at about midnight and rise high in the sky as dawn approaches, however, starting from January 16, it is possible to try to spot the comet before the moon appears. At about 2 am local time, noting that the comet will not be very high in the sky, so it is preferable that the observation be from a high location and that the northeastern horizon be fully exposed.
By January 18, the comet will be observed in the early morning sky without the presence of the moon, then it will move through the northeast of the howling stars, heading to the Dragon Stars, and this will be followed on January 23 by the comet’s passage to the northeast of the two galaxies M102 and NGC 5907.
And on the last day of January, the comet will be only 11.5 degrees from the North Pole star (Polaris), and it will move quickly, as it will cut about 12 inches per minute, which means the exposure period will be shorter when taking pictures of the comet to obtain accurate details.
After a short period of approaching the Earth, it will become visible in the sky of the southern hemisphere, then the comet will dim over time because it is heading away from the sun, returning to the outer part of our solar system, and there is no data whether it will return to us again.
In Egypt, Dr. Gad El-Kady, head of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research, announced that the Katameya Astronomical Observatory, with its 1.8-meter-diameter mirror, began observing the green comet (C / 2022 E3) today, at dawn, January 12, 2023, during its closest point to the sun.
The head of the institute said, in statements to him, that this rare comet, called C/2022 E3 (ZTF), visits Earth once every 50,000 years and is characterized by the emission of green gases when it approaches the sun, so it is called the green comet, while the famous Halley’s comet visits Earth once every Only 76 years old.
For his part, Dr. Makram Ibrahim, Head of the Sun and Space Research Department, said that the comet (C / 2022 E3 (ZTF)) was discovered on the second of March 2022 by astronomers Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci using the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) scanning system at an apparent luminosity. Its magnitude is 17, 640 million km from the sun, and the comet completes its orbit around the sun every 50,000 years.
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