It only comes around every 50,000 years and could be visible in the night sky for the next few days.
According to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is around one kilometer in size, but currently has a coma measuring around 50,000 kilometers, a kind of particle shell.
This occurs when the comet approaches the sun and heats up, causing particles to break loose from its ice and migrate into the tail.
According to the Association of Star Friends, it will come closest to Earth at around 42 million kilometers in early February.
That's almost a third of the distance from Earth to the sun.
The maximum brightness of the comet is quite remarkable, under very dark skies you might be able to see it - if you know exactly where it is.
However, the chairman of the Sternfreunde, Sven Melchert, assumes that one will not discover it in the sky without a telescope or binoculars and without the necessary experience.
When is the best time to see the comet?
"It is initially an object in the morning sky, then it will remain high in the sky near the North Star all night and say goodbye in the evening sky at the beginning of March," says the star friends.
It has already reached its closest point to the sun in mid-January and will come closest to earth on February 1st.
Good observation periods - if the weather cooperates - are the last days of January and the second half of February, when less moonlight brightens the sky.
Because on January 21st and February 20th there is a new moon.
The European Space Agency Esa assumes an inconspicuous comet, which can, however, be observed with modest instruments.
Most recently, comets C/2021 A1 Leonard and C/2020 F3 Neowise flew past Earth.
The celestial body C/2022 E3 (ZTF) gets its name because it was first seen last year by a program called the Zwicky Transient Facility from an observatory in the United States.