Comet whizzes by Earth for first time in 50,000 years
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  • Writer's pictureKyle Sooley-Brookings
    • Feb 8, 2023
    • 1 min read

Comet whizzes by Earth for first time in 50,000 years


By Edu INAF - https://www.flickr.com/photos/edu_inaf/52658472905/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=128244881

On February 1 the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) whizzed by Earth.


The comet appeared bright green in the sky.


The comet was only discovered on March 2, 2022, by the Zwicky Transient Facility. It is from the Oort cloud.


The comet last flew by our planet about 50,000 years ago.


The nucleus of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is estimated to be about a kilometre in size and rotates every 8.7 hours.

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