Right at the edge of our solar system and halfway to the nearest stars is a collection of icy objects drifting through space, known as the Oort Cloud.
Sometimes the passage of the stars pushes these icy travelers towards the Sun, and we see them like kites with long tails.
Comets are basically fluffy snowballs mixed with dust that slowly vaporize as they get closer to the Sun. The dust and gases they contain form their characteristic tail, which can stretch for millions of kilometers.
This phenomenon It can be seen on February 1 from Colombiawhen comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) crosses the sky.
Keep reading: (Asteroid 2023 Bu will pass close to Earth this Thursday: this is how you can see it)
According to the Halley Group of the Industrial University of Santander (UIS), a science center dedicated to the dissemination of scientific knowledge whose central axis is astronomy, this event can be seen with the naked eye from different parts of the country.
The only condition is that they must be places without light pollution.
The comet can be seen from February 30 to 2, from midnight to 5 in the morning, as the Halley Group points out in an Instagram post.
Its closest approach to Earth will take place on February 1 from 6:00 pm to 3:00 am on February 2.
This event is unique, since the celestial body takes about 50,000 years to pass by the Earth and this may be the last time the comet approaches our planet.
For this reason, the Halley Group will carry out an observation day on Wednesday, February 1 from 6:00 to 9:00 at night at the main entrance of the UIS, in Bucaramanga.
If you do not have a telescope or binoculars to appreciate the phenomenon in the sky, in The Virtual Telescope Project you can see time lapse images of the ZTF comet.
More news
With information from Europa Press*