<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">A newly discovered comet will make its closest approach to our planet on Wednesday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Astronomers say the object's journey toward us took around 50,000 years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Photographs captured by astronomers show a distinct green hue around the body of the comet.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But those expecting a brilliant streak of emerald in the sky will be disappointed. Its brightness is right at the threshold of what is visible to the naked eye.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Astronomers discovered the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) last March at the Palomar Observatory in California.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It will make its closest approach to Earth at around 41 million km (26 million miles) away this Wednesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The object originates in the Oort cloud, a collection of icy bodies at the edge of the Solar System.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To find it, Massey suggests first searching for the pole star, which is always in the same place in the sky.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can identify the pole star by looking directly north and locating a star that hangs distinctly by itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">You can then use free planetarium software online to determine where the comet will be moving in relation to the pole star on the night you're looking at it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The best time to view it will be in the early hours of Thursday morning when the Moon has set.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At that time the comet should appear just to the right of the pole star.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A green appearance for comets is not uncommon and is usually the result of breakdown of a reactive molecule called dicarbon - two carbon atoms joined together by a double bond.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Such colour is better picked up by digital cameras, which are more sensitive to colour. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>