Comet C/2022 E3 could be visible to the naked eye later this month!

The comet was discovered last year and will pass in front of our sun later this month.

Around this time last year, no one had heard of C/2022 E3; the comet was only identified in March 2022 using the Zwicky Transitional Facility find out. At that time, the comet was already heading towards our sun and was already in Jupiter’s orbit. We are now a year away and the comet is approaching perihelion; the point in its orbit closest to our sun. And as the comet darkens towards the sun, it lights up (see box).

Comets are also called dirty ice balls. They are made up of ice, gas and dust. Comets themselves do not emit light. But their icy surface can reflect sunlight. When comets get closer to the sun, there is more sunlight to reflect and they therefore become brighter. In addition, they are heated more strongly by the sun, so that part of their ice sublimates (the ice turns into water vapor all at once). The dust particles trapped in the ice are released and, together with the gases, form a coma: a hazy gas cloud around the comet’s nucleus. The comet may also have a tail. The released material will also reflect sunlight, further increasing the brightness of the comet.

perihelion
On January 12, the distance between the sun and comet C/2022 E3 is the smallest. The distance between the sun and the comet is then slightly greater than the distance between the sun and the earth. Around February 1, the distance between the Earth and the comet is the smallest; C/2022 E3 will then approach our planet at about 0.29 AU, or 43.3 million kilometers. According to the site, the best time to observe the comet from the Netherlands and Belgium is now heaven.observe.com however, around January 28.

With the naked eye?
And maybe you don’t even need to look at your binoculars or your telescope at this time. Chances are that C/2022 E3 will be so bright then that it will even be visible to the naked eye. Astronomers, however, are wary; it is very difficult to predict the evolution of the luminosity of a comet. Especially if we have never seen this comet pass in front of the sun (as is the case with C/2022 E3). But if the increase in brightness we’ve seen in recent months continues, there’s definitely a chance that C/2022 E3 will be visible to the naked eye. And if not, you should at least be able to observe it through binoculars.

NEOWISE
It is not very often that a comet can be seen with the naked eye. One of the most memorable recent examples of a comet observable with the naked eye is NEOWISE. In the summer of 2020 he gave a great show which was also clearly visible from the Netherlands (see photos here!).

In any case, C/2022 E3 will not offer such a spectacle, say the astronomers. Still, it’s still worth hunting for the comet later this month, with binoculars or a telescope. Because it’s still fascinating to see an icy remnant of our solar system’s 4.5 billion-year-old construction moving across the sky. Moreover, comet C/2022 E3 appears to have such a long orbit that we – and many generations after us – will never again see it pass in front of the sun and the earth.