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‘Green comet’ appearing close to Earth after 50,000 years

  • January 25, 2023
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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‘Green comet’ appearing close to Earth after 50,000 years

Subject :Science and Technology

Section: Space Technology

Context:

  • The comet termed the C/2022 E3 (ZTF), is named to refer to those who first spotted it – astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in the US.

Comets:

  • Comets are frozen rocky or gas-filled objects that are remnants of the formation of the solar system.
  • Due to their composition, characteristics and the path they move in, they tend to leave a light behind them.

Where do comets come from?

  • The orbit indicates it comes from the edge of our solar system, a distant reservoir of comets known as the Oort cloud.
  • The Oort cloud is thought to be a big, spherical region of outer space enveloping our sun, consisting of innumerable small objects, such as comets and asteroids.
  • NASA terms it “the most distant region of our solar system” and “Home of the Comets”.
  • The green comet could be at a distance of 2.5 light minutes from Earth, meaning a “mere” 27 million miles.

What is the ‘green comet’?

  • Here, the comet itself is green (called the head of the comet) and emits a whitish light behind it (often called the tail of the comet).
  • Comets have often been seen giving out blue or whiteish light, or even green.
  • In this case, the green glow is thought to arise from the presence of diatomic carbon – pairs of carbon atoms that are bound together – in the head of the comet.
  • The molecule emits green light when excited by the ultraviolet rays in solar radiation.

How rare is the green comet?

  • They come under the category of long-period comets, which take more than 200 years to orbit the sun.
  • As they have a highly elliptical orbit, these comets will head back to the Oort cloud and will appear again after 50,000 years.

Why do comets leave a trail of light behind them?

  • Just like other bodies in space, comets also have orbits. They are sometimes pulled in close to the sun because of the sun’s gravity acting on them.
  • As they orbit near the Sun they heat up and spew gases and dust into a glowing head that can be larger than a planet.
  • Due to their orbit near the sun, the remains of dust following this burnup, from a distance, look like a trail of light to humans on Earth.
Green comet Science and tech
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