THE NEXT BRIGHT COMET?
It’s always a difficult call, but this is our best guess at the moment
COMET NAME: COMET C/2022 E3 (ZTF) ESTIMATION WHEN VISIBLE:
JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 2023 ESTIMATED PEAK MAGNITUDE: +5.0 Comet names are reassuringly logical. In this case the C simply stands for ‘comet’, and 2022 refers to the year in which it was discovered. The letter code that follows progresses through the alphabet at a rate of one letter per half-month. E, being the fifth letter, means this comet was first spotted in the first half of March 2022. It was the third to be discovered in that period, which explains why it’s E3. The final part of the name, in brackets, is reserved for the discoverer, which is often an individual, but in this case refers to an ongoing sky survey. Specifically, ZTF is the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in California.
C/2022 E3 will make its closest approach to Earth – at just 0.3 AU away from us – on 2 February 2023. At that time it should be visible in the constellation of Camelopardalis (the Giraffe), not far from the celestial north pole. Estimates of its peak brightness vary, but the most optimistic is around magnitude +5.0. Technically this would make it a naked-eye object, though for a good view of it you are really going to need binoculars.