It was just discovered last Friday. By then it was already inside Earth’s orbit. That is both crazy & wild! These days, with so many eyes — many automated — we tend to spot comets way, way, way out, before they even get as close as Jupiter. So, this was very unexpected.
It is NOT a sungrazer — which are MY favorites. But, it gets PRETTY close to the Sun at perihelion.
Folks are HOPING that we might get quite the SHOW. (See below) That would be quite the BONUS.
Click to ENLARGE. [I have been accused, often, of being too laid-back during presentations. But, when you have done as many as I have, it is but second nature. Just muscle memory.]Click image to access the ‘Laconia Rotary’ Facebook post.
This was a short, 20-minute presentation (which went on for a bit longer). This video is not of the live presentation. It was ‘taped’ (& you should be glad of that).
Instead, this is my PowerPoint presentation made into a YouTube video set to music. It is just under 2.5 minutes. So, not too painful to watch.
This is NOT one of my full-blown, 1-hour (+) comet presentations. It was meant to be short, quick & with an emphasis on C/2022 E3 (ZTF). So, please don’t take this as one of my usual, in-depth comet presentations. I will, now that I have done this, make one of those too. OK?
To claim that it visited 50,000 years ago is pure speculation — sensationalism & IGNORANCE on the part of the media.
Yes, it currently has an estimated orbital period of ~50,000 years. But, if you check Wikipedia or any other semi-reliable source you will find that this is CLEARLY marked — INBOUND.
We ONLY know that it currently has an estimated orbital period of ~50,000 based on what we have seen so far of its orbit.
There is no guarantee, whatsoever, that it has made this trip before.
Most of these non-periodic comets (as designated by the “C/” at the front of its official name) are SINGLE-APPARITION comets or 1st time comets. In other words, they haven’t made this trip, i.e., enter the inner solar system to go around the Sun.
Yes, these comets are likely to have existed since the time the Solar System came to be 4.5 billion years ago. But, that doesn’t mean that they started whizzing around on the orbital paths that bring them this close to the sun as of that time. They tend to stay in a far, far out circular obit way out there in the ‘Oort Cloud‘.
So, don’t just buy into this 50,000 year claim. We just don’t know. It is sheer speculation.
Oh, we also can’t be sure it will be back in 50,000 years!
Click to ENLARGE. From ‘Google News’.Click to ENLARGE & read here. ‘Wikipedia’ link.
Despite being postulated by one of my heroes in the world of astronomy, viz. ‘Jan Oort‘, of cometary ‘Oort Cloud‘ fame, I always had this feeling that ‘Dark Matter‘ was hokey. As with Dark Matter there is also no proof of the existence of the Oort Cloud. But, the Oort Cloud makes sense to me. Not so Dark Matter. Very true that I am NOT an astrophysicist, but I have a better than average grasp on astronomy.
So, I am real glad that Dark Matter is being seriously questioned & rethought. Good idea. About time. Our knowledge of astronomy grows by the day. So, let’s have another crack at this. Good stuff.
