An infinite volcanic comet the scale of a small city has violently exploded for the second time in 4 months because it hurtles toward the sun. And similar to the previous eruption, the cloud of ice and gas emitted what looked like a huge pair of horns.
The comet, named 12P/Pons-Brooks, is a cryovolcanic — or cold volcano — comet. It has a solid nucleus, with an estimated diameter of 18.6 miles (30 kilometers), and is full of a mixture of ice, dust and gas often known as cryomagma. The nucleus is surrounded by a fuzzy cloud of gas called a coma, which leaks out of the comet’s interior.
When solar radiation heats the comet’s insides, the pressure builds up and the comet violently explodes, shooting its frosty guts out into space through large cracks within the nucleus’s shell.
On Oct. 5, astronomers detected a big outburst from 12P, after the comet became dozens of times brighter because of the additional light reflecting from its expanded coma, in response to the British Astronomical Association (BAA), which has been closely monitoring the comet
Over the subsequent few days, the comet’s coma expanded further and developed its “peculiar horns,” Spaceweather.com reported. Some experts joked that the irregular shape of the coma also makes the comet appear to be a science fiction spaceship, resembling the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.
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The bizarre shape of the comet’s coma is probably going because of an irregularity in the form of 12P’s nucleus, Richard Miles, a BAA astronomer, told Live Science after the comet’s previous eruption. The outflowing gas is probably going being partially obstructed by a notch protruding on the nucleus, Miles said. Because the gas continues to expand away from the comet, the irregularity within the coma’s shape becomes more defined and noticeable, he added.
12P is currently hurtling toward the inner solar system, where it’ll be slingshotted across the sun on its highly elliptical 71-year orbit around our home star — much like the green comet Nishimura, which pulled off a near-identical maneuver on Sept. 17.
12P will reach its closest point to Earth on April 21, 2024, when it might turn out to be visible to the naked eye before being catapulted back toward the outer solar system. It’ll not return until 2095.
That is the second time 12P has sprouted its horns this yr. On July 20, astronomers witnessed the comet blow its top for the primary time in 69 years (mainly because of its outbursts being less frequent and harder to identify in the course of the remainder of its orbit). On that occasion, 12P’s coma grew to around 143,000 miles (230,000 km), which is around 7,000 times wider than the comet’s nucleus.
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It’s unclear how large the coma grew in the course of the most up-to-date eruption, but there are signs the outburst was “twice as intense” because the previous one, the BAA noted. By now, the coma has likely shrunk back to close its normal size.
As 12P continues to race toward the sun, there may be a high probability that we are going to witness several more major eruptions. It is feasible that those eruptions will likely be even greater than probably the most recent one because the comet soaks up more solar radiation, in response to Spaceweather.com.
But 12P just isn’t the one volcanic comet that astronomers are currently monitoring: 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann (29P) — probably the most volatile volcanic comet within the solar system — has also had several noticeable eruptions within the last yr.
In December 2022, 29P experienced its largest eruption in around 12 years, which sprayed around 1 million tons of cryomagma into space. And in April this yr, for the primary time ever, scientists accurately predicted certainly one of 29P’s eruptions before it actually happened, because of a slight increase within the comet’s brightness within the lead-up to the icy explosion.