Take the opportunity to see the green comet – soon it will be too late

In March 2022, the Green Comet, or C/2022 E3 (ZTF) as it’s already called, was discovered by space scientists with the help of the Wide Field Camera.

Comets are “cosmic snowballs” made up of frozen gases, dust, and rocks. The reason this particular comet glows green has to do with the presence of certain chemical compounds in the coma and the effects of sunlight. These chemicals glow green when heated by ultraviolet light and released from the comet, which is when an emerald-like glow is formed.

Hard to see with the naked eye

– Now it’s 42,000,000 km away from us, so you need to go out in complete darkness, get binoculars and a tripod, or even better a camera and know where to look. If you live in the city today, you hardly see Karlavaggen.

– The comet was closest to Earth on February 1, but then moonlight was a problem. Another chance to see it is around February 10th-11th, because it will be so close to Mars in the sky that it will be easy to find, even if it is not very bright, says Kjell Olusun, chair of the board. For astronomy Orebro.

Because the comet is moving all the time, you cannot locate specific coordinates in the sky where you have to look to see it.

– The best thing if you want to see a comet is to go to a website called stellarium.org, there the comet is really excellent and there you can see exactly where it is right now, this moment, because it’s constantly moving. But you see that more easily if you photograph it, says Kjell Olauson.