Skygazers have the chance to view more than just a bright planet Mercury or April’s total solar eclipse over the next few days. An unusual “devil comet” or Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will be visible across the night sky over the next several days and may make an appearance during the big eclipse on April 8th. Since it only makes one orbit around the sun every 71 years, seeing Pons-Brooks is generally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
What is the ‘devil comet’?
Pons-Brooks is a 10.5 mile-wide ball of ice and rock. It has a stretched out or highly elliptical orbit and is currently heading in the direction of our sun. It has a core made up of solid ice, gas, and dust that is surrounded by a frozen shell or nucleus. This nucleus is also covered by a cloud of icy dust called a coma that slowly leaks out of the center of the comet.
Unlike most other comets, Pons-Brooks is cryovolcanic. It frequently erupts when solar radiation opens up fissures in the nucleus. This causes highly pressurized icy cryomagma to spew into space. When this occurs, the cloud of icy dust that surrounds it expands and appears brighter than usual.
Pons-Brooks had a major eruption for the first time in 69 years in July 2023, which left it with two distinct trails of gas and ice that resemble a pair of devil horns. It has continued to erupt fairly frequently.
[Related: ‘Oumuamua isn’t an alien probe, but it might be the freakiest comet we’ve ever seen.]
When will it be visible?
Throughout the next few weeks, Pons-Brooks may be visible to the naked eye as…
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