This image of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was taken on Thursday morning, January 19, 2023 at about 5 a.m. CST. At that time, the comet was located in the constellation of Bootes at a declination of +48 degrees.
During the image, the comet was undergoing a tail disconnection event, seen in the latter part of the tail. A movie of the comet and this event is shown
here. This event is a weakening in the comet's tail likely caused by a coronal mass ejection (CME) form the sun. This comet has experienced several of these events, which can case the tail to be pinched off temporarily.
In case you were wondering as I was, the comet designation of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is as follows:
- C means that the comet is a non-periodic comet
- 2022 is the year that the comet was discovered
- E is the half of the month in which the comet was discovered (first half of March)
- 3 means that it was the 3rd comet discovered in the “E” time frame.
- ZTF is who discovered the comet (Zwicky Transient Facility)
I see 6 different structures here:
- The bright core of the comet itself.
- The green coma, generated when solar ultraviolet UV rays boil off carbon organic molecules from the comet nucleus.
- The wide brown dust tail.
- A component of the dust tail which appears distinctly “ahead” (to the left) of the comet head
- The thin white ion tail, pointing directly away from the sun.
- The tail disconnection event, described above, in the latter half of the tail.
I was able to see the comet as a gray smudge in binoculars. I thought I could see it, just barely, with the naked eye, but it was fading in and out of my view so it may have just been my imagination.
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