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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on 9.02.2023 |
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Size: 1800 px | |||||||||||||||||||||||
© Velimir Popov & Emil Ivanov 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a long-period comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on 2 March 2022. The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus, due to the effect of sunlight on diatomic carbon and cyanogen. The comet nucleus was estimated to be about a kilometer in size, rotating every 8.7 hours. Its tails of dust and gas extended for millions of kilometers and, during January 2023, a third anti-tail was visible. The comet reached its perihelion on 12 January 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km; 103 million mi), and the closest approach to Earth was on 1 February 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km). The comet reached magnitude 5 and was visible with the naked eye under moonless dark skies. This image shows the comet on the night of February 9th using the new TS-Optics Ritchey-Chretien RC16 Pro, D = 406 mm (16”), f/8.
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Charts and image details obtained from Astrometry.net | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Copyright: Velimir Popov and Emil Ivanov 2013 - 2023. All Rights Reserved | |||||||||||||||||||||||
e-mail: info@irida-observatory.org | |||||||||||||||||||||||