And the winner of the first first Big Island Now/Kauaʻi Now poll is …

It seems that an ancient visitor from the far reaches of the galaxy has captured the imaginations of Big Island Now and Kauaʻi Now readers.

The results of the first Big Island Now poll are in, and the rare green comet — Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) — that flew through our solar system and made a 26-million-mile flyby of Earth at the beginning of February for the first time in 50,000 years was the No. 1 pick.

Readers were asked “What’s your favorite extraterrestrial event in 2023?” and the comet garnered one-quarter of the total vote, edging out the Blue Swirl.

Here are the results:

• Green comet: 25%
• Blue swirl: 23%
• Jupiter moon auroras: 20%
• Shedding light on dark matter: 17%
• Green lasers: 15%

The comet and blue swirl tied with 25% each as the top choices for Big Island readers. Kaua‘i readers, however, tapped the auroras discovered on several of Jupiter’s moons as their favorite; it received 41% of the Kaua‘i Now vote.

Two of the choices, the blue swirl and green lasers, were captured by the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera at the Subaru Telescope atop Maunakea on the Big island. Check out todayʻs story about the camera and all of the out-of-this-world — and awesome atmospheric — events it’s captured in the past several months.

And be sure to vote in our next poll on Monday, in which we ask: “Which profession do you think is ‘Tough As Nails’?