Visitor from afar | National Geographic

National Geographic Hungary

This is how our readers saw comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), which in many places neanderthal cometwas referred to as, since it was in our vicinity 50,000 years ago before its current visit. Since comets are dynamically changing celestial bodies, they can even have noticeable differences from hour to hour, mainly in the structure of the ion plume swinging in the solar wind. Unfortunately, during the observation period, there were cloudy days for weeks, so the documentation is a bit patchy, but our readers did their best to make your visit memorable. Our large-scale compilation was created from the most beautiful reader recordings, according to the chronological order of their creation. From the end of December to the middle of February, the comet kept photographers and observers busy, during this period it crossed half the sky, passing through spectacular parts of the sky, next to clusters of stars, bright stars, and appeared in the company of Mars. By now it has faded quite a bit, but we can say: this celestial wanderer was a nice gift in the winter sky.