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Astronomers publish images of a comet as close to Earth as possible KXan 36 Daily News

Date: March 29, 2024 Time: 17:00:00

The Irkutsk Planetarium and the Regional Astronomical Society published unique images of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) on their social media pages. These images were obtained by an amateur and connoisseur of astronomy Yulia Shevtsova.

The celestial body captured by Julia was discovered on March 2 of last year by specialists from a California observatory. Then the comet was 640 million kilometers from the Sun. Last month it passed through the point of its orbit closest to the star of our system, finding itself on January 12 at 110 million kilometers from the Sun. Today, C/2022 E3 it is only 42 million kilometers from Earth.

Astronomers claim that the space object moving along the constellations Draco, Ursa Minor and Giraffe could not be fully observed in January due to frost and so-called “diamond dust” in the air, and sometimes banal clouds interfered. But at the end of the month we managed to catch a “window” in the clouds.

– In the suburban sky, I easily found a comet through binoculars – at that time it was to the right of the Ursa Minor cube stars. It turned out to take not only a photo, but also a time lapse,” Shevtsova said.

Meanwhile, employees of the Irkutsk Planetarium observed the object and recorded its movement using an electronic telescope.

“Those who wish to see the comet without optical instruments will have to be upset: it is impossible to see it in the illuminated sky of the city,” said Pavel Nikiforov, director of the Irkutsk Planetarium. – In the suburban sky, the situation is no better: the growing moon interferes with observations, and the closer to the full moon, the more difficult it is to see the comet.

Earlier, employees of the Novosibirsk Grand Planetarium announced that the comet would reach its maximum brightness on February 1. It was also reported that the next time this object will be at such a close distance from Earth, no more and no less than 50 thousand years from now.

It should be noted that for the inhabitants of the Siberian region adjacent to the Irkutsk region – the Krasnoyarsk Territory – the space turned out to be especially generous these days with the shows. Late in the evening of January 31, Krasnoyarsk residents saw a flash of a fireball flying over the regional capital – it eclipsed the moonlight and city lights. According to the director of the Siberian State University observatory, Sergei Veselkov, the fireball was quite large.

* This website provides news content gathered from various internet sources. It is crucial to understand that we are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented Read More

Hansen Taylor
Hansen Taylor
Hansen Taylor is a full-time editor for ePrimefeed covering sports and movie news.
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