Valley Wide Kayak Club

Did you know that now is your chance to see a green snowball in the sky that only appears every 50,000+ years? ☄️

C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is an icy ball of frozen gas, rock, and dust, otherwise known as a comet. As this ‘snowball’ travels closer to the sun, it begins to warm up and release carbon gases to form a visible bright green center and a signature streaking tail. But what makes this “Green Comet” so stellar? C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is a non-periodic comet, meaning that it takes an extremely long time to orbit around the sun as it travels from the outer reaches of our solar system. The last time this particular comet passed Earth was during the Ice Age…over 50,000 years ago!

This image of C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was captured during the early morning hours on Saturday, January 28th from the Sky’s the Limit Observatory located near our North Entrance. Although February 1st was when the Green Comet came closest to our planet (a mere 26 million miles away), northern hemisphere observers can still use binoculars or a telescope to catch the tail of this comet until April 2023. For stargazers coming to visit the park, now’s your chance catch this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before it disappears from the sky for another 50,000 years.

In the next few days, viewers may be able to see a faint green smudge near the bright star Polaris (also called the North Star) just before dawn. However, when the full moon fades on February 10th, the comet will have traveled extremely close to the planet Mars. If you face west after sunset to find the planet’s orange-red light (to the right of the constellation Orion), the comet can be seen just above it. During this time, astrophotographers can point their cameras towards this location in the sky and take long exposure shots of 20-30 seconds. If you see a fuzzy, tailed object…you’ve captured the comet!

No matter what day you go to check out this amazing occurrence, good weather conditions and a dark, night sky away from city lights are required. Luckily, the skies at Joshua Tree National Park match these criteria perfectly!

Photo By: Peter Ilott