Look up in the sky!
It’s not a bird, it’s not a plane, but it’s a unique green comet that Long Islanders can see in the night sky during the first week of February.
According to NASA, the comet, described as a dirty snowball, was last this close to Earth’s field of view about 50,000 years ago. The comet is expected to come within 26 million miles of Earth on Wednesday before leaving Earth, and may not return for millions of years.
The green celestial object currently known as Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is thought to originate from what is known as the Oort Cloud, a theoretical cloud of icy objects that exist in the farthest reaches of the Solar System far beyond Pluto.
Steve Bellavia, a staffer at the nonprofit Custer Institute and Observatory in Southold, told Newsday on Sunday that viewers who saw it at the observatory on Saturday were impressed by the comet.
“It seems like everyone who came last night came for one reason – to see the comet,” Bellavia said. “Strangely, almost all comets are green. But they were all hyped, so we had a camera show it on screen. We had the camera on a screen and we had the eyepiece where people could physically come up and see it. But everyone was excited.”
According to Bellavia, the comet glows green once the sun hits it because of the amount of carbon and nitrogen around it.
Long Island stargazers can see this comet any time from now through the end of the first week of February, with the night of Feb. 3 being the brightest and the comet closest, Bellavia said. Viewers will need binoculars or a telescope to see the comet as it is not visible to the naked eye.
The comet is also in close visual proximity to Polaris, which is sure to be a treat for stargazers.
“Most of the comets I’ve photographed are once in a lifetime, and that was once in a lifetime, too,” said Bellavia, who has photographed nearly 50 such comets since 2013. “This one had a really long ion tail. It may be one of the longest, not the longest, but one of the longest ion tails I’ve seen in photos. It was pretty neat.” With AP
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