Tonight in the sky you can see a green comet that will pass close to Earth for the first time in 50,000 years.
This comet will pass 26 million to 27 million miles above the Earth’s northern hemisphere.
Despite being so close, this comet would be more than 100 times farther from Earth than the Moon.
At some places on Earth (where there is no light pollution and the sky is completely dark) it will be visible to the naked eye and will have a faint green glow near the Pole Star.
This comet, named C 2002 E3 (ZTF), will be more visible in binoculars and telescopes.
After February 2nd, it will start moving away from Earth again and then it will not return for an estimated millions of years.
On February 10, it will be close to Mars.
This comet was discovered in March 2022 by experts from the California Institute of Technology in the United States, at that time it was at a distance of 377 million miles from the Sun.
Experts estimate that this comet enters the orbit of our Sun every 50,000 years, meaning that it last passed close to Earth during the Stone Age of our planet.
Comets are known as globules and ice balls that revolve around the Sun in large elliptical orbits.
As comets approach the Sun, their bodies heat up while the icy surface turns into gas and spreads out.
All these elements form a cloud with a tail behind it.
Images of C/2022 E3 have already surfaced showing a green glow around it, and the color is believed to be caused by a molecule called diatomic carbon.
This molecule emits green light in the ultraviolet rays of solar radiation.
