Watch: Green comet last seen 50,000 years ago drifts across Virginia skies

A green comet last seen 50,000 years ago was visible to observers on Earth as it drifted across Virginia skies.

Footage posted to Twitter on 30 January by Christopher Becke in Williamsburg captures 10 minutes of the comet’s movement.

Becke said he took ten 60 second exposures through a telescope to create the video.

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will make its closest approach to Earth on 2 February, according to Nasa.

Scientists at the University of New South Wales have said that its green glow comes from a “fuzzy layer of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus”.

Sign up for our newsletters.