Neanderthal comet will approach Earth after 50 thousand years
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Who knows if, 50,000 years ago, our ancestors Homo sapiens, who still shared Europe together with the Neanderthals, saw a light appear in the sky for a few days or weeks, different from all those that populate the firmament. Soft and soft edges, with a long tail, a comet. The same one that has come back to visit us in recent months, after so many millennia and, now that we can, we have given it a name: C/2022 E3 ZTF, discovered on March 2, 2022. Due to its long period of revolution around the Sun, it has been dubbed “the Neanderthal comet” and may soon be visible to the naked eye as well.
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The race to the sun
The period of revolution of C/2022 E3 ZTF is about 50,000 years, therefore, very long. It is an object that comes from afar, from the Oort cloud, to the most extreme periphery of the solar system. It will reach perihelion, the closest distance to the Sun, on January 12, therefore it is the period of maximum activity of its nucleus and its tail combed by the solar wind, while on February 1 it will be at its closest point to the Earth, at about 42 million kilometers. In those days, we will probably also be able to observe it with the naked eye, provided we are under a sky with little light pollution, far from cities and towns, perhaps in the mountains.
Its brightness grew rapidly as it entered the center of the solar system, so it is likely that in the coming days its brightness will exceed the threshold of the sixth magnitude, the limit for observation without instruments. Even if with comets the predictions are often ignored. However, it should already be visible with good binoculars or a small telescope. Edu Inaf, the site dedicated to dissemination and schools of the National Institute of Astrophysics, has launched the campaign “A comet among the stars in winter” https://edu.inaf.it/news/premi-e-concorsi/campagna-astrofoto-cometa-c2022-e3-ztf/ inviting you to look for it among the constellations and photograph it.
Where to look for it in the sky
The good news, in fact, is that its position is excellent to be seen from the northern hemisphere on days of maximum brightness. It is now in the constellation Corona Borealis, which, for those who live in Italy, rises in the east in the second part of the night. Then it will move quickly towards the constellation of Bootes and Dragon, to find itself in the days around February 1, when it will be closest to us, therefore, a short distance from the clearly recognizable North Star, at the end of the rudder of the Little Dipper. At that point, being “circumpolar”, i.e. close to the star which by definition never sets, the comet will also be visible throughout the night. To then head towards the Giraffe, Auriga and the Bull.
Before getting lost in the dark again, there will be a couple of opportunities not to be missed: in fact, it will pass very close to Mars between February 10 and 11 and we will find it in the company of the Hyades star cluster on February 13-14. We don’t know if it will still be visible to the naked eye, but for anyone with a telescope they are two essential appointments. Or two good excuses to visit the nearest of the dozens of astronomical observatories scattered throughout Italy, which certainly won’t miss the comet that returns every 50,000 years. And who knows next time which species will follow her from here on her journey across the firmament.
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