Outbound Comet ZTF
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Rolando Ligustri
Former darling
of the northern sky Comet C/2022E3 (ZTF) has
faded.
During its closest approach to our fair planet in
early February
Comet ZTF was a mere 2.3 light-minutes distant.
Then known as the green comet,
this visitor from the
remote Oort Cloud
is now nearly 13.3 light-minutes away.
In this deep image, composed of exposures
captured on March 21,
the comet still sports a broad, whitish dust tail and
greenish tinted coma though.
Not far on the sky
from Orion's bright star Rigel,
Comet ZTF shares the field of view
with faint, dusty nebulae and distant background galaxies.
The telephoto frame is
crowded with Milky Way stars toward the constellation Eridanus.
The influence of Jupiter's gravity on the comet's orbit as ZTF
headed for the inner solar system, may have
set the comet on an outbound journey,
never to return.