Gianluca Masi from the Virtual Telescope Project captured imagery of comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF). The comet's closest approach to Earth at 26.4 million miles (42.5 million km) away. Credit: Gianluca Masi / ...

Named C/2022 E3 (ZTF), the comet has an orbit around the sun that passes through the outer reaches of the solar system, which is why it's taken such a long journey -- and long time -- to swing by ...

The new polar, which received the designation ZTF J0112+5827, has an orbital period of approximately 81 minutes. The finding is detailed in a research paper published on the arXiv preprint server.