'Larger Than Everest' Comet Could Become Visible To Naked Eye This Month 54
12P/Pons-Brooks, a Halley-type comet larger than Mount Everest and with a 71.3-year orbit, is expected to become visible to the naked eye in the coming weeks as it makes its closest approach to the sun on April 21. The Guardian reports: While some reports suggest 12P/Pons-Brooks was spotted as far back as the 14th century, it is named after the French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons who discovered it in 1812 and the British-American astronomer William Robert Brooks who observed it on its next orbit in 1883. Thought to have a nucleus about 30km (20 miles) in diameter, it is classed as a cryovolcanic comet, meaning it erupts with dust, gases and ice when pressure builds inside as it is heated. One such outburst last year caused it to brighten a hundredfold and garnered it the sobriquet of "the Devil Comet" after the haze that surrounds it formed a horned shape.
While the comet -- and its green tinge -- has already been spotted in the night sky, experts say it is expected to become even brighter in the coming weeks. "The comet is expected to reach a magnitude of 4.5 which means it ought to be visible from a dark location in the UK," said Dr Paul Strom, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick. "The comet moves from the constellation of Andromeda to Pisces. As it does so it passes by bright stars which will make it easier to spot on certain dates. In particular, on March 31 12P/Pons-Brooks will be only 0.5 a degree from the bright star called Hamal," he said. But Dr Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, said even if the comet did become brighter it could still be difficult to see, adding that basic instruments such as small telescopes would greatly help.
"If you have a half-decent pair of binoculars, certainly attempt to look for it with those," said Massey, adding that apps that map the sky were also useful. The best views of the comet are currently to be found in the northern hemisphere. Massey said those who wanted to catch a glimpse should venture out on a clear evening and look low in the west-north-west as twilight came to an end. "You want to avoid haze, you want to avoid moonlight, you want to avoid light pollution."
While the comet -- and its green tinge -- has already been spotted in the night sky, experts say it is expected to become even brighter in the coming weeks. "The comet is expected to reach a magnitude of 4.5 which means it ought to be visible from a dark location in the UK," said Dr Paul Strom, an astrophysicist at the University of Warwick. "The comet moves from the constellation of Andromeda to Pisces. As it does so it passes by bright stars which will make it easier to spot on certain dates. In particular, on March 31 12P/Pons-Brooks will be only 0.5 a degree from the bright star called Hamal," he said. But Dr Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, said even if the comet did become brighter it could still be difficult to see, adding that basic instruments such as small telescopes would greatly help.
"If you have a half-decent pair of binoculars, certainly attempt to look for it with those," said Massey, adding that apps that map the sky were also useful. The best views of the comet are currently to be found in the northern hemisphere. Massey said those who wanted to catch a glimpse should venture out on a clear evening and look low in the west-north-west as twilight came to an end. "You want to avoid haze, you want to avoid moonlight, you want to avoid light pollution."
Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:4, Informative)
Magnitude 4.5 is not dark. It should be easily visible from a suburb sky - just don't try to find the comet standing right next to a streetlight.
Light pollution is bad as it is, but at least in my area 80% is darker than 4m5. Now, true 7m skies... that would be a treat, but nobody in central europe is ever going to have that anymore.
Re:Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:5, Insightful)
*The Netherlands has entered the chat.
[Netherlands]: What are these comet things you speak of? The sky is nothing more than a bright orange glow all night.
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Call back in 6 months...
Re:Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:4, Funny)
How many Everests is a standard Halley comet?
Just trying to figure out if I should be impressed or not.
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Everest is mostly rock, with a thin coating of ice and snow
comets are mostly ice, with a bit of organic stuff.
So a lot less dense than a mountain.
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Common Core Math:
There are X football fields in 1 Everest, and Y Everests in 1 Comet Halley. Solve for X and Y.
[relax it's a joke]
Re:Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll never forget the times when I was in the Marine Corps and attached to the USS John F Kennedy aircraft carrier. I was fortunate to be an avionics technician that frequently needed to be on the flight deck. During lights out drills at night in the middle of the ocean the entire universe would come slowly into view. After about 15 minutes the Milky Way would come into glorious view. The number of stars seen by the naked eye with no light pollution is mind-boggling. I'll never forget that. Even driving out into the countryside in rural Ohio on a moonless night can't match those dark skies.
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Even driving out into the countryside in rural Ohio on a moonless night can't match those dark skies.
I'm from the midwest and lived for years in a rural area without light pollution. I spent a few nights outside of Taos and I've never seen skies like that in my entire life. Being high and dry really helps.
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Once you see something like that you never forget it. It brings into focus just how small we all are in the grand scheme of things.
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Also, I happen to live in a town that is only a few miles from dead center of the upcoming eclipse. We are supposed to get 3 minutes and 38 seconds of totality. What a great time to be alive.
Re: Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:2)
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I don't understand this comment?
Re: Sad that magnitude 4.5 is considered "dark" (Score:2)
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Oh, gotcha! Yeah, the news stations in northwest Ohio are predicting 500,000+ visitors for the eclipse. My county alone is expecting 130,000+.
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After a job interview in 1990, my soon-to-be Boss asked me if I had any booked holiday.
- "August 5 to 19, 1999," quoth I. Which caught his attention. "Eclipse".
"Oh, I see. No problem, but I'll have a job putting it into a diary for a few years."
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The only float time I had was in the Atlantic ocean typically between Norfolk and the Caribbean. I spent a few months at Subic and wouldn't you know it they put us Marines at the top of the highest hill in Quonset huts, but it was dark up there and the night sky was awesome. Side note: The first time I saw the giant bats landing in the trees up there I shit bricks.
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Errr, why?
Does the US (?) Navy have some bizarre sexual ritual about crossing the Equator. The only thing our ship did was the Captain made a tannoy announcement each time we went over the line.
(First clear night from a desert island south of the equator, I succumbed to shouting at the sky, "Mine! All mine!" Then I went back to my beer at the rig's bar and brothel.
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Presumably, the married men wanted to get home to their wives and their sons and their daughters.
Does the US (?) Navy have some bizarre sexual ritual about crossing the Equator. The only thing our ship did was the Captain made a tannoy announcement each time we went over the line.
No, just the standard visitation by King Neptune and the initiation of the Pollywogs by the Shellbacks.
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Yeah, I heard about that but never had to take part in it (thank goodness, LOL)
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That sounds as if the captain was proposing a diversion to cross the Equator twice - which would certainly have been squashed by Head Office for wasting fuel and engine-hours - not the [optional] holding of a "crossing party" (different japes for different navies - civilian and military).
Just a second while I check the geometry : start and end points on different side of the Equator - ship must cross
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Funny you should mention that. When my ship went to Subic Bay from the west Pacific, we went through Surigao Strait [wikipedia.org], site of a major naval battle late in WW II. The strait is so narrow that I could always see both shores as we steamed through, which explains quite a bit about the course of the battle.
Comet visible during total solar eclipse (Score:5, Interesting)
It could be visible during the April 8th total solar eclipse eclipse in North America, but only in the narrow totality band, a rather unique spectacle.
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Even the glow from the corona seemed to put off light like a full moon during the last total eclipse. I wonder if it would even be visible then.
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Larger than everest isn't saying much (Score:2)
Most comets are the size of small asteroids anyway and "larger than" can mean anything from a micrometre larger upwards.
Fff (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not saying there's any reason to panic, but we're all gonna die.
Re:Fff (Score:5, Funny)
A "green tinge" eh? Where have I heard that before? Oh yes:
"A flare, spurting out from Mars â" bright green, drawing a green mist behind it â" a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing, on that remote, forbidding planet."
So yeah, we're all gonna die.
So yeah, we're all gonna die. (Score:3)
I guess you didn't read to the end of the book
(or listen to the 2nd CD (if it was Jeff Wayne's musical version))
Spoiler alert
The Martians die from earth's bacteria.
OOOO Laaah
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Oh I read it, and wore out the vinyl version of the musical, and several CD copies. Yes, they die, but they take out a whole lot of us in the process...
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Re: panic...we're all gonna die. (Score:1)
That's actually very true, just not necessarily immediately.
Guys, guys ... (Score:2)
... I think we've established that the proper units here are "football fields".
Everests ... sheesh!
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No... "football fields" is metric, "Everest" is imperial.
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Football fields are standard, football pitches are metric.
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Yet 110 yards is close enough to 100 metres that it is easy to picture 100 metres as the distance between the goal posts in gridiron football.
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... I think we've established that the proper units here are "football fields".
Everests ... sheesh!
What do you mean? American or European?
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Well, Chimborazo in Ecuador is the widest from the centre of the earth due to the elliptical nature of the equator.
Let's not girth-shame the Andes.
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You're thinking of the oblate ellipsoid shape of the Earth, which is best seen on great circle sections that pass through the poles.
You're right about Chimborazo being the furthest point on the surface of the Earth from the centre of the Earth.
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Canadian, 110 yards or 101 metres.
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Of course we have one. Olympic-sized swimming pools!
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Why are so many Christians God fearing instead of God loving?
If you actually want to know, it's because He says to do both:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him [biblehub.com] who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
(Sorry that I can only refer to Jesus here as my expert on Christianity, instead of someone more hip and modern ...)
Comet Could Become Visible To Naked Eye This Month (Score:2)
which means it ought to be visible from a dark location
*If you spend hours of driving 100s of miles to do this.
Is It Wormwood? (Score:2)
Time to move to Asia.
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FoilHatGPT spotted an oddity (Score:1)
It's odd how near the millennium change-over, we had two very prominent comets, but duds since.