Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) Briefly Developed Bizarre 'Anti-Tail' That Seems To Break Laws of Physics

The comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is not just a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence; instead, it is a once-in-an-epoch extravaganza that was witnessed 50,000 years ago, when Neanderthals inhabited the Earth. It is often called the "green comet," which has been seen from Bhubaneswar and other regions of Odisha. The images of the comet have gone popular on numerous social media sites.

The comet got its name from the astronomers who used the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in the United States to discover it. But as it blazes through the night sky this month, Live Science reports that astronomers noticed that it temporarily sprouted a strange tail they referred to as "anti-tail," which seemed to defy the laws of physics.

Mysterious Anti-Tail of Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

Comets typically only have two tails, wherein one is made from dust that the solar wind blows off from the comet, and one that is made of gas from within the comet that sublimates, or transitions, straight from solid to gas.

But on January 21, Ruslan Merzlyakov in Denmark and Alessandro Carrozzi in Italy, as well as other astrophotographers who snapped pictures of the green comet noticed a third tail that was pointed towards the sun instead of away from it.

According to Spaceweather.com, the bizarre third tail is made up of the same components as the other tails of the comet but is not a part of it. Rather, it is only an optical illusion caused by Earth as it moves through the orbital plane of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF).

The twin tails of a comet are frequently visible because the dust tail reflects sunlight, while the gas within the other tail becomes ionized, which causes it to emit a faint glow. The discharged gas gradually cools and becomes undetectable, although the residual dust is left to drift in the wake of the comet's orbital plane, or journey around the sun.

As Earth passes across a comet's orbital plane, the Sun reilluminates a part of the dust and makes it look like a brilliant streak, which might appear to shoot out of the opposite direction of the other tails of the comet depending on the space rock's trajectory and orientation. However, this is an optical illusion, as there is no additional tail.

Other Comets With Anti-Tails

The optical illusion is comparable to how the Milky Way looks as a brilliant band across the night sky since people on Earth are gazing at the galaxy's plane from the side. As per Universe Today, humans see the view across the plane of a comet circling the Sun instead of seeing across the plane of our galaxy.

Other examples of comets with anti-tails that have been sighted include Comet Kohoutek in 1973, Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997, and Comet PanSTARRS in 2013.

That means this is not the first time the tails of the green comet have caught the attention of scientists. The green comet was vividly visible in the night sky on January 12 as it approached its perihelion or its closest point to the Sun.

At perihelion, the comet's thin atmosphere, or coma, shines brighter than usual. On January 17, one of the comet's tails momentarily parted mid-stream when it was battered by coronal mass ejection-induced intense solar winds.

For those who missed their chance this month, the comet will be visible to the naked eye again in late January and on February 1 as it approaches closely to Earth.

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