Celestial Spectacle: Rare ‘Devil Comet’ fly past Earth at one point for a lifetime

The rare "devil comet," with its distinctive horned shape, is making its closest approach to Earth in over 70 years, offering a prime viewing opportunity for skywatchers in the Southern Hemisphere.

A visitor from the heavens and circled by many names including the ‘devil comet’ has decided to grace the audience this week with its spectacle as it comes closer to our planet than it has done in the last 70 years. This particular comet has been given the number 12P/Pons-Brooks and, unfortunately, people in the Northern Hemisphere will not see it. However, those people in the Southern Hemisphere will be able to witness this rather rare visitor from the bottom of our solar system.

The comet was given the devil-ly moniker because of its two tails of dust and gas with a greenish nucleus that looked like horns. This comet has been measured to be between 10-20 kilometers in diameter making it one of the largest and active comets to have been viewed from the Earth.

“The comet is an explosion of nature’s power,” Dr. Teddy Kareta of Lowell Observatory. “Indeed, it is a magnificent object with a sharp, distinctive, and highly luminous coma which will not come close to the inner solar system again for over seventy years.

Comet Pons-Brooks visited the Solar vicinity on April 21st coming as close as 120 million kilometers from the Sun. This weekend the comet will be at its closest approach to the Earth which is only 230 million kilometers which is even six hundred times more away than the moon.

For amateur astronomers from the southern hemisphere, the best way to view the comet is through binoculars or a small telescope in the early morning sky, in the east region of the sky it seems like a faint glow. Although it is quite close to our planet, it can be conclusively stated that the comet is not a threat because it is not on the trajectory of an impact on the Earth.

Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle was first seen in 1812 by Jean-Louis Pons and then in 1883 by William Brooks, and from its orbital data it takes approximately 71 years to complete its orbit around the sun. This makes the ongoing apparition which seems to be happening currently a chance that one might only get to see once in their lifetime.

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“People should continue taking advantage as they down here below the equator,” added Kareta. They say The Devil Comet is a bumpy ride and one hell of a show that will not be repeated for the next 22 centuries.