Will 'Satan Comet' 12P/Pons-Brooks survive its shut encounter with the solar?

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, additionally dubbed the ‘Satan Comet’ has thrilled skywatchers in latest months with its spectacular night time sky show and sudden flare-ups in brightness. However because it approaches perihelion — its closest distance to the solar — on April 21, will it survive the encounter or be subjected to a fiery destiny?

Nicely, there’s excellent news and dangerous information.

The excellent news is that comet 12P/Pons-Brooks’ survival chances are high promising as it should give the solar a large start throughout perihelion, passing at about 72.6 million miles (116.8 million km), equal to three-quarters the Earth’s distance from the solar. The dangerous information for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers is that after its photo voltaic flyby, the comet will “fade very quickly and largely turn into an object for Southern Hemisphere observers” commented House.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao in a earlier article.

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Rao estimates that comet 12P/Pons-Brooks will most likely drop to sixth or seventh magnitude by the tip of Could and eighth or ninth magnitude by the tip of June.

These within the Southern Hemisphere have needed to wait patiently for 12P/Pons-Brooks and might solely now begin to see it in the southern sky.

Nevertheless it’s nonetheless not too late to catch a glimpse of the ‘Satan Comet’ within the northern sky earlier than it utterly disappears into the sundown glow.

a fuzzy green comet in the night sky

Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, also referred to as the Satan Comet, is seen on a transparent night time close to Toledo, Spain. (Picture credit score: Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket through Getty Pictures)

There was some point out of future flare-ups within the coming weeks that would trigger the comet to brighten considerably, so Rao requested well-known comet knowledgeable John Bortle for his opinion. Bortle famous that whereas the comet brightened dramatically final summer time when it was removed from the solar and simply beginning to get lively, for any flare-ups within the close to future, the comet won’t seem to brighten very a lot as a result of the general brightness of the comet has elevated considerably because it now has moved a lot nearer to the solar.

“Because of this,” notes Bortle, “the outburst brightness can’t overwhelm the general brightness of the comet’s coma as simply.”

After perihelion on April 21, the celestial vagabond will proceed its journey via the photo voltaic system earlier than returning to our skies in 2095.

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Will ‘Satan Comet’ 12P/Pons-Brooks survive its shut encounter with the solar?

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