The hunt for the Green Comet begins this Thursday (9) at the E=mc2 Albert Einstein Astronomy Park in Crisium, south of Santa Catarina. The event is free.

The Astronomy Park offers a green comet hunt – Photo: Patrick Stüpp/Decom/Divulgation/ND

Telescope practice will take place from Thursday to Sunday (12) starting at 20:00. First, the lecture “Comets, frozen space travelers” awaits visitors.

“Watching Comet Verde is considered a unique opportunity, mainly because the passage of comets is a periodic astronomical event that has occurred over hundreds or thousands of years,” says municipal education secretary Selito Cardoso.

The park geologist Mauricio Tadeu Fenilli de Menezes is responsible for the lecture and the direction of the practice of observation. According to Fenilli, the event was called a hunt because there is no guarantee that the comet will be seen. “In case we fail, there are other stars that we can see in the sky,” says the geologist.

About the green comet

According to Mauricio, Cometa Verde is officially named C/2022 E3 (ZTF) and is green in color due to its carbon content in its structure. Moreover, the last near-Earth appearance of a comet occurred 50,000 years ago.

Comets are very interesting astronomical objects. Usually the planets revolve around the Sun in the form of a disk, comets do not obey this orbit, they have different axes, so every time their orbit passes close to the Sun at a distance noticeable to us, the result is such a colored tail, ”Fenilli reports.

Park Hours

The Astronomy Park is open every day from 9:00 to 21:00. The practice of observation in telescopic tubes takes place from Thursday to Sunday, from 20:00 to 21:00. Guided sessions at the park and its digital planetarium also take place Thursday through Sunday at 3:00 pm, 5:00 pm, and 7:00 pm.

To participate in sessions in the planetarium, there is a ticket worth 10 reais per person, which is sold on the spot. Children under six years of age, senior citizens, groups of teachers and public school students are admitted free of charge.

Teachers and students of private schools in Crisium, public and private schools in other municipalities, as well as university students are entitled to half the price.