SCIENCE MAKES HISTORY

 A Comet That Hasn’t Been in the Sky Since the Stone Age

By Olivia Flanz 

From February 1st to February 2nd of 2023, the Green Comet was able to be seen in the sky with just the naked eye. This comet was last seen 50,000 years ago, during the Stone Age. While this comet is ancient, it was only discovered last year by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego California. It was founded by Caltech, a world-renowned science and engineering institute. 

Named the “Green Comet” because of its coma - the gassy cape that surrounds the comet's nucleus- which is green, due to the diatomic carbon it contains. The Green Comet could be found by looking South of the Big Dipper. Once the North Star was located, the Comet was directly South of the Polaris. The best time to observe the comet was early morning, less than one hour between moonset local time and when dawn begins. According to NASA, that was when the comet was at its brightest.