'Green comet will approach Earth for first time in 50,000 years,' says NASA officials

A bright green comet has been predicted to swing by Earth's outer space for the first time in 50,000 years and might stay for around a month, reported BBC. The icy visitor has been first spotted in March 2022, inside the orbit of Jupiter, said one of  (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) the NASA officials. This green comet would be closer to Earth and would be easy to spot on February 2, said scientists. 

"Comets are notoriously unpredictable, but if this one continues its current trend in brightness, it'll be easy to spot," reported BBC citing a NASA blog released earlier this month. 

Further, the statement read, "It's just possible it could become visible to the unaided eye under dark skies." The comet could also be seen through binoculars as a small green glow in the Northern Hemisphere starting from January 12. 

According to NASA, the scientific name of this Green Comet is C/2022 E3 (ZTF)  would make its closest approach to the sun on Thursday before moving towards earth on February 2. At that point, it would be just about 42 million kilometres away from the planet, according to the Planetary Society, reported BBC. This event is considered "an opportunity to see it will only come once in a lifetime" as the comet takes about 50,000 years to orbit the sun, said the Society. 

Surprising facts about comets 

According to Clark, comets are “dirty ice balls," which is contrary to what we know that comets are fiery balls, reported Forbes. They are not fiery balls flying through the sky rather they are made up of several compounds, such as dry ice, mineral grains, and carbon dioxide. Most of the comets are made of two tails: an ion tail that’s yellowish in colour where as the other one has a dust tail that's bluish in colour. According to the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Comet tails always point away from the Sun, reported Forbes.