The giant comet the size of Halley’s comet now displaying a weird horseshoe shape could be visible during the next total solar eclipse.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks was already on the cusp of being big news on our planet. It orbits the sun every 71 years, but will next get closest to the sun on April 21, 2024.
It’s currently being imaged by astrophotographers in the northern hemisphere each night after getting five times brighter last week.
Strange Shape
It also developed a strange horn-like horseshoe shape that makes it resemble the Millenium Falcon, the spaceship piloted by Han Solo in the movie franchise Star Wars.
A comet in outburst means an unexpected brightening and expansion from the nucleus of a halo.
That’s caused a lot of excitement among astrophotographers and amateur astronomers, who can now see the giant comet in a six-inch telescope. Last week that was impossible.
The unpredicted activity suggests that there could potentially be something more exciting coming up next year for comet-watchers.
Darkness in the Day
Pons-Brooks’s perihelion next year is well-timed, coming just a couple of weeks after North America’s total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 visible from 14 U.S. states, Mexico and Canada on April 8, 2024.
It’s predicted to reach its brightest—when closest to Earth—on June 2, 2024, when it could reach magnitude +4.7. That will make it a naked eye object at night.
However, it’s possible that our first view of Pons-Brooks will come in the hours of daylight.
During totality on April 8, 2023—when day will turn to night as the sun’s disk is blocked by a new moon for up to 4 minutes 27 seconds—Pons-Brooks may show up. At that moment it will be 27º from the sun and close to bright planet Jupiter, which will also be visible.
It will be a rare chance to photograph the sun’s corona together with a comet.
“It will be near perihelion and 27º from the solar corona next April 8,” said solar eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler at GreatAmericanEclipse.com. “Imagine if it has an outburst during the eclipse!”
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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