Her name is C/2022 E3; her seekers call her green comet. Those who saw her are left in awww, and those who didn’t missed a lifetime opportunity.
Who is she?
When seen through a telescope, she is a rare celestial beauty with a bright green nucleus and a long, mesmerizing ion tail. For people who saw her with their naked eyes, she was a dim green star that twinkled more than other stars and moved slowly south.
- The nucleus of the comet was thought to be about a kilometer across and turn once every 8.7 hours. This comet also had a tail which was millions of kilometers long.
What’s the big deal?
We don’t know much about C/2022 E3, but according to The Planetary Society, its long orbit takes it from the far reaches of the solar system and then closer to the sun.
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) found this long-period comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on March 2, 2022. Its home is said to be the Oort cloud.
The comet’s name starts with “C,” which means it’s not a frequent visitor, and “2022 E3,” which means it was the 3rd comet to be seen in the first half of March 2022.
This comet hasn’t been this close to Earth since the Stone Age. The last time the comet came by, these guys were around.
My experience
On February 2, I was busy with work and had no plans to go out and watch the comet. However, I saw a message from my brother on Whatsapp saying he was trying to see it, but due to clouds near his location, he wasn’t having any luck.
This inspired me so much that instead of working late that day, I grabbed my binoculars and went outside, only to find light pollution around our house due to the highway nearby. So without wasting any time further, I went inside, grabbed all the necessary things like helmet & bag, etc., hopped on my motorcycle, and drove towards the beach near me at 9 PM night. My friend who lives close by joined me as well. We reached at 9.30 PM at night, hoping we could catch a glimpse of the green star. We were lucky enough because we eventually spotted the beautiful comet, something both of us had never seen before. We were mesmerized watching it for a long time. I even tried taking a few photos; unfortunately, clouds came just then, so I couldn’t manage to take photos.
