Comet C/E3: An Ice Visitor from the Distant Outer Solar System? A Recent Explainer from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

It isn’t expected to be as bright or flashy as in 2020, even if it does become bright enough to be seen with a telescope. Nevertheless, it’ll be a special moment for Earth — astronomers don’t expect Comet C/2022 E3 to visit us again for at least another 50,000 years, according to Newsweek.

This new comet was discovered last March while it was within Jupiter’s orbit. The comet’s current trajectory should bring it closest to the sun by January 12th. NASA says that it will be at its closest position to Earth on February 2nd.

The brightness of comets tends to be unpredictable, but this one’s current behavior is promising, according to a recent explainer from Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Its glow may be visible to the naked eye, though only in dark night skies. Observers with binoculars or telescopes have a greater chance of witnessing the rare speck of light.

“It’s still an awesome opportunity to make a personal connection with an icy visitor from the distant outer solar system,” Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a video posted this week.

It would last for more than a thousand years to be seen in the sky if C/E3 passes through the solar system before.

Astronomers first spotted the emergence of a bright light on March 22, 2022, at the Zwicky Transient Facility. At the time, the comet was inside the orbit of Jupiter.

A solar-like planet in a tidal state of the universe without spherical orbits or oblateness?

It is possible it can gain enough energy to leave the solar system, or it can stay bound to its elliptical orbit for another trip.