Kakinada: Rare green comet to appear in night sky tomorrow

Kakinada: Astronomy and National Children Science Congress Academic Coordinator and Science Communicator M Susatya Rekha stated that sky gazers will get a chance to witness a rare celestial event, which is said to be a once-in-50,000-year experience, i.e., the arrival of a celestial guest Green Comet C/2022 E3. She said that astronomical objects rarely look green, but this comet is green in colour, maybe due to a reaction of diatomic carbon molecules. She said this green comet that was last seen nearly 50,000 years ago in stone age, will be visible to the human eye for the first time. It was discovered on March 2, 2022.

The comet reached the perihelion of a camera attached to a telescope in the Palomar observatory in California on 12 January 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km; a 103 million mi), and the closest approach to Earth will be on 1 February 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km; 26 million mi). The comet will be dimly visible to the naked eye and viewers will need an instrument such as binoculars.

This comet will become visible during the last week of January or the first week of February. It can be seen most clearly in the sky to the north east just before sunrise. This time the comet will be very high in the evening sky on February 2 as it will be closest to earth.

The magnitude of this comet is predicted to be about 5.0 comfortable for the unaided eye. The dimmest stars that a naked eye can see are about magnitude 6.

Between mid-January and mid-February, the green comet will travel a little bit everyday across the starry background of the night sky. The best chance to see this comet will be when it is closest to the earth around this time. This comet should be visible through binoculars in the morning sky for skywatchers in the Northern hemisphere.