For the first time since Neanderthals roamed the planet, a comet is scheduled to pass by Earth this week close enough for us to see it without any need for telescopes or binoculars. KMOX spoke with McDonnell Planetarium senior educator Eric Gustafson to learn more.
The comet, C/2022 E3 (ZTF), comes from the Oort cloud, which is a distant spherical structure that has trillions of icy bodies that are loosely gravitationally bound to the sun. Gustafson said the incoming orbit looks to be about 50,000 years.
“Oort cloud comets tend to be disrupted by close approach to a distant star, it might still be many, many light years away. But that's still enough of a gravitational nudge to kind of kick it into the inner solar system,” he explained. “So about 50,000 years ago, you can think this comet started its journey to the inner solar system. And it'll probably be the last time it's this close to us.”
Unlike a meteor which is often just a quick blip, the comet will be visible in the sky for a while.
“As we get past its closest approach, which is tomorrow, it’ll very quickly head into the direction of our winter sky,” he said. “It's going to pass by a bright star called Capella. And then on February 10th and 11th, we'll see it pretty close to where Mars is in the sky, in the constellation Taurus. So it's going to certainly be moving pretty quickly from night to night, but plenty of time for people to try to see it.”
Hear more about this once-in-a-lifetime comet sighting from Total Information AM:
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