wanderingrichard
Life of the Party
Is this the suddenly famous "Green Comet" that's been in the news so much ?The comet hunters at the Canuck Observatory a proud to announce they have confirmed that the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) has sprouted an anti-tail, that is, a tail that is seemingly pointing towards the Sun, rather than the usual away from the Sun (directed by the solar winds). C/2022 E3 (ZTF) actually has 3 tails, an ion tail, very faint and directed almost directly downwards (away from the Sun) in the below image (it actually underwent a "disconnection" last week), a dust tail, the faintly pink hazy area below the nucleus, and the anti-tail, pointing to 11 O'clock. The anti-tail is not actually streaming towards the Sun, it is an optical illusion resulting from our crossing the comets path.
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) should continue to brighten over the next several days, perhaps becoming visible to the naked eye. It is now relatively easily visible with a good pair of binoculars. We are expecting a couple of cloudy rainy days but clearing by Friday night/Saturday morning, as the comet nears its closest approach to Earth in 01 February.
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Cheers