Agencies :
Observers in the Arab world are preparing to observe the developments of Comet C / 2022 E3 (ZTF), which is now sailing through the inner part of the solar system, marks a great start to the New Year and is likely to be the best Comet of 2023 in January and February .
The Astronomical Society in Jeddah revealed in a report that the comet reached its perihelion point on Thursday, January 12, where it will be at a distance of 166,053,636 kilometers from the sun, after which it will orbit the sun and reach its closest distance from the Earth on Wednesday, early February.
The comet was discovered in March 2022 by the Zwicky system (ZTF), which scans the entire sky of the northern hemisphere once every two days from the Palomar Observatory in California, so there are many other comets with the acronym ZTF in their names because they were discovered by the same facility.
The comet began its long journey from the outer regions of the solar system from inside the Oort Cloud and although approaching the sun can make some comets brighter, at perihelion, this comet will be at a distance of 106,214,488 kilometers from Earth, which means that it will probably not reach the limits of visibility with the naked eye at this time.
After the comet approaches the sun, its brightness is expected to increase and become brighter until the end of the month.it is expected that the comet's brightness will reach its peak around the beginning of February, when it will approach the Earth and be at a distance of 41,887,404 kilometers from our planet. at this stage, many observers and astrophotographers hope that the comet will reach the limits of visibility with the naked eye, especially when it will pass ostensibly near the North Pole, which sets the scene for some wonderful images.
However, even at the peak of its luminosity, a comet is not expected to have a bright long tail that can be seen without a telescope, but even without a tail, a comet will be an unforgettable sight, in addition, comets can always surprise us with unexpected brightness, so it is useful to follow the comet to find out what it will do.
The comet is currently observed in the Arab world in the early morning a few hours before dawn and its brightness is now about (+7), which makes it easily seen through binoculars or any small telescope, and if the comet brightens to (+6), it will be visible to the naked eye under ideal conditions.
The comet appears in the images in green, which is because its nucleus releases diatomic carbon, a gaseous substance common in the" coma" of comets, which glows in near space under the influence of sunlight, and it is possible that the green color will become more intense as the comet approaches the Earth.
The comet is currently passing in front of the northern Corona stars through the howling and the Dragon, passing through the Little Bear and near the Little Bear scoop at the end of the month, and it is observed that the comet crosses large areas of the sky every day, approaching the North Star (Polaris).
By the time the comet passes close to the Earth in February, it will be in front of the giraffe stars, and during this week the comet rises from the northeast horizon at about midnight and rises high in the sky as dawn approaches, however, starting from January 16, it can be attempted to monitor the comet before the moon appears at about 2 AM local time, noting that the comet will not be very high in the sky, so it is preferable to monitor from an elevated position and the northeast horizon is fully exposed.
By January 18, the comet will be observed in the early morning sky without the presence of the moon, then it will move through the northeast of the howling stars heading for the Dragon Stars and this will be followed on January 23 by the passage of the comet northeast of the galaxies M102 and NGC 5907.
On the last day of January, the comet will be only 11.5 degrees away from the North Pole Star (Polaris) and moving fast, as it will travel about 12 inches per minute, which means the exposure period will be shorter when taking pictures of the comet to get accurate details.
Shortly after approaching the Earth it will become visible in the sky of the southern hemisphere and then the comet will dim over time as it moves away from the sun back to the outer part of our solar system and there is no data whether it will return to us again.
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