C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) photographed by Alessandro Bianconi on 27 January 2023 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovery site | Zwicky Transient Facility |
| Discovery date | 2 March 2022 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch | 21 October 2022 (JD 2459873.5) |
| Observation arc | 916 days |
| Earliest precovery date | 10 July 2021 |
| Number of observations | 8,235 |
| Aphelion | ≈2800 AU (barycentric epoch 1950) |
| Perihelion | 1.112 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.999988 (barycentric epoch 2050) |
| Orbital period | ≈50,000 yr (inbound) Possible Ejection (outbound) |
| Inclination | 109.17° |
| Last perihelion | 12 January 2023 |
| Earth MOID | 0.221 AU (33.1 million km) |
| Jupiter MOID | 1.743 AU (260.7 million km) |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Dimensions | ~0.81–2.79 km (0.50–1.73 mi) |
| 8.5–8.7 hours | |
| 0.1 | |
| Comet total magnitude (M1) | 10.8 |
| 5.0 (2023 apparition) | |
C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a non-periodic comet from the Oort cloud that was discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on 2 March 2022. The comet has a bright green glow around its nucleus, due to the effect of sunlight on diatomic carbon and cyanogen. The comet's systematic designation starts with C to indicate that it is not a periodic comet, and "2022 E3" means that it was the third comet to be discovered in the first half of March 2022.
The comet nucleus was estimated to be about approximately 0.81–2.79 km (0.50–1.73 mi) in radius, rotating every 8.5 to 8.7 hours. Its tails of dust and gas extended for millions of kilometers and, during January 2023, an anti-tail was also visible.
The comet reached its perihelion on 12 January 2023, at a distance of 1.11 AU (166 million km), and the closest approach to Earth was on 1 February 2023, at a distance of 0.28 AU (42 million km). The comet reached magnitude 5 and was visible with the naked eye under moonless dark skies.