A rare green comet with an orbit of around 50,000 years is passing by Earth this month, with best viewing towards the end of January. (NASA)

By Alex Rawnsley

the green comet

‘It’s being melted nicely:’ rare comet moving across night sky offering up unique astronomical opportunity

Jan 22, 2023 | 5:51 AM

NANAIMO — It’ll take some searching, but a once-in-a-lifetime comet is making its way across our night sky.

The hunk of space rock, ice and gasses, formally named C/2022 E3 (Z.T.F.) but better known as “the green comet” was discovered in March 2022 by a Californian facility.

What makes it different than most comets which come close to Earth is its green hue.

Dr. Gregory Arkos, astronomy professor at Vancouver Island University, told NanaimoNewsNOW the green colouring is actually fairly common, but often hidden by long, bright tails which are often white or blue.

“We tend to think of comets as white and blue because those are the colours we see when they’re really bright and easy to see, but most comets do have this greeny colour to the coma, the material coming off the head of the comet.”

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The comet has an orbit of approximately 50,000 years, meaning the last time it passed by Earth, humans were just developing a capacity for language.

While currently fairly dim and best visible in the early morning hours, it’s hoped the comet will become a brighter sight as January rolls on.

Arkos said the comet is currently below the handle of the Big Dipper but will make its way towards the North Star by month’s end.

“The hope is the comet will be noticeably bigger and brighter by the time that happens. We don’t know exactly how much because comets are notoriously fickle, but the comet has just gone by the sun and it’s being melted nicely and it should be giving off lots of fresh material which will make it as bright as it’s going to be.”

Star gazers will have to battle a Full Moon on Feb. 5, making it harder to spot, so Arkos said late January is the best bet.

The longer people wait in January, the more opportunity there will be to avoid an early start with solid viewing available on either side of midnight in the northern sky.

“Hopefully it’ll be bright enough that it might be obvious there’s a little fuzzy object and with a pair of binoculars you should be able to see the head of the comet and maybe even a bit of the tail even with a small pair of binoculars.”

Arkos said this comet, whilst not overly astronomically significant, represents a unique learning opportunity to study something we only see every 50 millenniums.

He called comets “time capsules.”

“Little frozen, dirty snowballs that have ice and other gasses but also organic materials and other things in them. As they’re warmed up by the sun they release some of these things and we can collect the light and figure out what it’s made of.”

He added it helps educate scientists about the early days of the solar system and helps understand the building blocks which led to life on Earth.

Arkos recommends interactive star tracker apps on a smartphone as a great way to help find the comet in the sky.

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