Watch the exploding green 'devil comet' zoom past the Andromeda Galaxy in a stunning livestream this week [View all]

By Harry Baker published 4 days ago

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is currently sailing past the Andromeda Galaxy in the night sky as it races toward Earth, and you can watch it live this week.



A bright green comet with a long tail
The green colored comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is currently racing toward the sun before a close encounter with Earth later this year (pictured March 4). (Image credit: Michael Jäger)

An explosive, green comet racing toward Earth is currently zooming past the nearby Andromeda galaxy in the night sky, setting the stage for some stunning photographs. You can also watch the comet fly past our spiralling galactic neighbor in real time, thanks to an upcoming livestream.

Comet 12P/Pons Brooks (12P), also known as the devil comet, is a 10.5-mile-wide (17 kilometers) comet that circles the sun on a highly elliptical orbit every 71 years or so. 12P is a cryovolcanic, or ice volcano, comet. This means that it occasionally erupts when solar radiation cracks open its icy shell, or nucleus, allowing it to shoot out a combination of ice and gas, known as cryomagma, into space. When this happens, the cryomagma massively expands 12P's coma — the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the nucleus — making the comet appear much brighter for the next few days.

In July 2023, astronomers watched 12P blow its top for the first time in almost 70 years, and it has erupted reasonably frequently ever since. During the comet's early eruptions, 12P's expanded coma grew lopsided thanks to a notch in its nucleus, making it look like it had grown a pair of demonic horns. However, following more-recent eruptions, the horns seem to have disappeared for good. Newer photos of the comet also show that it has developed a green glow, which is caused by high levels of dicarbon (two carbon atoms stuck together) in its coma and tail, which is quite rare.

12P is expected to make its closest approach to Earth on June 2 after first slingshotting around the sun in late April. After it passes us, it will then journey back into the outer reaches of our cosmic neighborhood, where it will spend a majority of the next 70 years.

More:
https://www.livescience.com/space/comets/watch-the-exploding-green-devil-comet-zoom-past-the-andromeda-galaxy-in-a-stunning-livestream-this-weekend