Naked Eye Comet That May Never Return to Earth Captured in Video and Photos

Over the past few days, astronomer Gianluca Masi with the Virtual Telescope Project (VTP) has imaged the comet known as C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which is currently located more than 55 million miles from Earth.

The VTP is a service provided by the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory in Ceccano, Italy, that operates and provides access to robotic, remotely operated telescopes.

Masi created the first image below using several exposures captured on January 11, as the comet was approaching its perihelion—a term used to refer to the point in an astronomical object's orbit at which it is closest to the sun.

Comets are astronomical objects made up of frozen gases, dust and rock that orbit the sun. Sometimes referred to as "cosmic snowballs," these objects are blasted with increasing amounts of radiation as they approach our star, releasing gases and debris.

This process forms a glowing atmosphere around the comet, known as a coma—which, in the case of C/2022 E3 (ZTF), appears green—and two vast tails of gas and dust. The gas tail is sometimes referred to as the "ion" or "plasma" tail because it consists of charged particles.

Masi created the image from the average of 10, 90-second exposures captured with his 17-inch robotic telescope dubbed "Elena." The image was processed to show the bright region around the comet's nucleus and its ion tail.

Masi also captured another set of images of the comet using Elena on January 14 after its perihelion, with the object having brightened slightly.

The second image above was created using a combination of 30- and 60-second exposures. Again, it was processed to show the bright region and ion tail at their best.

The VTP also created a short video clip using the single frames captured by the project's telescopes. In this clip, the evolution of the tail can be seen.

The comet will make a close approach to the Earth on February 1 and will likely brighten over the next few days. Astronomers predict that it could become faintly visible to the naked eye prior to its Earth close approach, although there is always significant uncertainty in such forecasts when it comes to comets.

The current best estimate of the comet's orbit—which looks like an open curve—indicates that it may never return to the inner solar system.