                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 December 24

                             Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF)
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Dan Bartlett

   Explanation: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using
   the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year
   in early March. Since then the new long-period comet has brightened
   substantially and is now sweeping across the northern constellation
   Corona Borealis in predawn skies. It's still too dim to see without a
   telescope though. But this fine telescopic image from December 19 does
   show the comet's brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and
   long faint ion tail stretching across a 2.5 degree wide field-of-view.
   On a voyage through the inner Solar System comet 2022 E3 will be at
   perihelion, its closest to the Sun, in the new year on January 12 and
   at perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on February 1. The
   brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable, but by then C/2022
   E3 (ZTF) could become only just visible to the eye in dark night skies.

                    Tomorrow's picture: stars and mittens
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