<h4>71 Years After</h4>
<p><strong><a href="https://openlife.ng/">OpenLife Nigeria</a></strong> has reliably gathered that Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks is making its first visit to the inner solar system in 71 years.</p>
<p>Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is one of the brightest known periodic comets, with an orbital period of 71 years.<br />
Chances to see this object are rare.</p>
<figure id="attachment_24453" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-24453" style="width: 270px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-24453" src="https://openlife.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Untitled-1-e1712167610740.jpg" alt="71 Years After, Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks Appears In Inner Solar System On April 21 And June 2, Returns 2095 " width="270" height="141" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-24453" class="wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks Appears in Solar System On April 21 And June 2</strong></em></figcaption></figure>
<p>Before Monday&#8217;s solar eclipse happens, eagle eyed skygazers will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a rare green comet, dubbed the &#8216;Mother of Dragons&#8217;, in the night&#8217;s sky.</p>
<p>According to astronomers, Comet 12P/Pons–Brooks is viewable at night from the northern hemisphere in early April.</p>
<p>Larger than Mount Everest, it should appear as a green blob with a hazy tail as it makes its first visit to the inner solar system in 71 years.</p>
<p>To see Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, interested persons are expected to look westwards in the night&#8217;s sky and find the constellation of stars known as Aries the Ram, which forms a loose V-shape.</p>
<p>Over the next few weeks it will keep moving west towards Orion, the constellation that looks like the great mythical hunter.</p>
<p>&#8216;The comet can now be found in the constellation of Aries which is visible in the early evening, over in the west,&#8217; Gregory Brown, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, told MailOnline.</p>
<p><a href="https://tribuneonlineng.com/">&#8216;It will only become visible after twilight and sets by around 10pm BST.</a></p>
<p>&#8216;While it may be possible to see with the unaided eye, it is best to try and observe with a pair of binoculars or a small telescope.&#8217;</p>
<p>The public should look out for what looks like &#8216;an irregularly shaped dirty snowball&#8217;, or a faint star-like blob with a hazy tail and a green tint.</p>
<p>It looks green due to the presence of a molecule called dicarbon, which emits a greenish glow from sunlight.<br />
At the moment, it is getting progressively closer to the sun and the Earth as it&#8217;s pulled by the gravity of our star.</p>
<p>On April 21, it will come as close as 72.5 million miles (116.8 million km) to the sun, while a close approach with Earth of 144 million miles (232 million km) will happen on June 2.</p>
<p>But by this time it will be too late to view in the northern hemisphere, according to Jessica Lee, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.</p>
<p>&#8216;From June onwards, after the comet has passed the sun, it will only be visible to observers in the southern hemisphere,&#8217; she told MailOnline.</p>
<p>&#8216;It will grow fainter and fainter again as it travels towards the outer solar system and won&#8217;t approach the Earth again until 2095.&#8217;</p>
<p>12P/Pons-Brooks is what is known as a cryovolcanic – or cold volcano – comet, which means it exhibits volcanic activity.</p>
<p>But instead of spewing out molten rock and lava like a volcano on Earth, a cryovolcanic comet releases a mixture of gases and ice.</p>
<p>When a cryovolcanic comet gets closer to the sun – like 12P/Pons-Brooks is doing now – it heats up and builds pressure in the nucleus.</p>
<p>The pressure continues to build until nitrogen and carbon monoxide explodes and flings out icy debris through large cracks in the nucleus&#8217;s shell.</p>
<p>These gaseous streams can form distinctive shapes when viewed through a telescope, such as devil horns, also described as a horseshoe or the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars.</p>
<p>Just like planets, comets in our solar system orbit the sun because they are attracted to the sun&#8217;s massive gravitational pull.</p>
<p>It takes 12P/Pons-Brooks 71 years to complete an orbit of the sun, but this is relatively short compared with the orbital length of most orbits which take thousands of years.</p>
<p>Comets typically have highly &#8216;elliptical&#8217; orbits, meaning they are elongated and not perfectly circular.</p>
<p>These elliptical orbits take them very close to the sun at one point in their orbit (perihelion) and very far away from the sun at another point (aphelion).</p>
<p>Like all orbiting bodies, the closer comets are to the sun, the faster they move.</p>
<p>12P/Pons-Brooks is currently hurtling towards the sun – and therefore the Earth as well – at more than 40,000 miles per hour (20 km per second).</p>
<p>But this could increase to over 100,000 miles per hour as it makes its close approach to the sun, otherwise known as its perihelion.</p>
<p>After making its closest approach to us, the space rock will be gravitationally flung back to the outer solar system and will not return until 2095.</p>

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