A recent unexpected coronal mass ejection (CME) from the Sun has collided with comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, causing the “devil comet” to temporarily lose its tail.
The “devil comet” explosion was blown away by a massive plasma wave from the Sun, which temporarily stripped away its dusty tail. A NASA spacecraft captured this spectacular encounter in a new video, which also featured a distant Jupiter.
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (far left) was recently bombarded by an unexpected coronal mass ejection from the Sun. Jupiter was also seen in a new video of this event. (Photo: NASA/STEREO-A)
Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (12P) is a green cryovolcanic comet with a nucleus measuring 17 kilometers in diameter. It occasionally erupts, shooting a mix of gas and icy dust into the Solar System whenever it absorbs too much solar radiation. When this occurs, its coma—the cloud of particles surrounding the nucleus—expands and becomes much brighter. In the past, this bright cloud has been distorted from within, giving the comet a “pair of horns,” which earned it the nickname “devil.” However, these horns have disappeared in recent outbursts.
12P orbits the Sun approximately once every 71 years in an elongated elliptical trajectory. The comet spends most of its life in the outer reaches of our cosmic neighborhood, beyond the view of telescopes. However, it is currently making its final dive toward the Sun and will reach its closest point to Earth, known as perihelion, on April 22. After that, it will shoot past our star and retreat toward the edge of the Solar System—if it doesn’t get burned up in this close encounter first.
The Battle in the Sky
On April 12, the comet was struck by a huge plasma cloud known as a coronal mass ejection (CME) that erupted from the Sun without warning. This incident caused a disconnection phenomenon, where the comet’s dusty tail was temporarily blown away by the solar storm before regrowing afterwards.
The disconnection event is very rare, but its likelihood increases as the comet approaches the Sun. A similar occurrence happened with Comet Nishimura in September 2023, when a CME blew away its tail as it orbited the Sun—just as 12P is set to do this week. In January 2023, an astrophotographer captured time-lapse footage of a similar event happening with Green Comet C/2022 E3.
This is not the first time 12P has been spotted near another celestial body during its journey through the Solar System. The explosive comet was also photographed passing through the deep red Crescent Nebula in January and was livestreamed as it soared past the Andromeda Galaxy in March.
There is also hope that 12P could appear during the recent total solar eclipse. However, it proved extremely difficult to detect as the moon temporarily obscured the Sun.
