This comet was discovered at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) on March 2, 2022. It reached perihelion on January 12, 2023, and it made its closest approach to Earth on February 1, 2023 when it was about 26 million miles away.

At its brightest, the comet reached magnitude 5 and was dimly visible to the naked eye from a dark location. Through a telescope, its coma had a distinctly green hue, as seen in this image.

Calculations based on the comet's speed and trajectory suggest that it may return in several million years, or it may exit the solar system and never return.

Image details: Exposure times of 160 seconds luminance, and 150 seconds each of red, green, and blue, taken with an SBIG STF-8300M imager and a 14" Meade LX850 telescope at f/5.5.

January 30, 2023