According to a VOA article, A green comet 2023 is streaking back our way after 50,000 years.
The dirty snowball last visited during Neanderthal times, according to NASA. It will come within 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) of Earth on Wednesday before speeding away again, unlikely to return for millions of years.
Comets can be considered as “time capsules” in the sense that they contain preserved material from the early Solar System. Comets are composed of ice and dust, and are believed to be some of the oldest and most primitive bodies in the Solar System. They are thought to have formed from the same material that eventually formed the planets, but never coalesced into a planet due to their small size.
Comets contain information about the conditions and processes of the early Solar System and can give us insight into the formation and evolution of the Solar System. Studying comets can help us understand the conditions that led to the formation of our Solar System and the origins of life on Earth. Thus, in this sense, comets can be considered as “time capsules” of the early Solar System.
