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Journalism of Courage
Comet 13P/Pons-Brooks, also called the Devil Comet, is about the size of Mount Everest and it is hurtling towards Earth. After an outburst in July, scientists believe that the intimidatingly named comet could explode once again today.
The Pons-Brooks comet had a huge eruption in July where it blew off a bunch of gas and dust, which meant that it brightened by 100 times as seen by telescopes. That eruption caused the comet to distort into a horseshoe or horned shape, according to Astronomy magazine. That is why many media outlets began calling it the Devil Comet.
As if calling it the Devil’s Comet was not scary enough, just reading the headlines of the articles about it might give you the impression that it is going to finish off the Earth soon. But that is far from the truth.
When the comet reaches the closest point to the Sun in its orbit, it will be at a distance of 0.8 astronomical units. To put that into context, one astronomical unit is the approximate distance between the Earth and the Sun. So yes, the Devil Comet might come relatively close to the Earth, but it will be further away than Venus, which is about 0.7 astronomical units away from the Sun.
The Devil Comet has its explosion due to a phenomenon that we are all too familiar with on Earth — volcanism. The comet is cryovolcanic, meaning that it has volcanoes that erupt material into the extremely cold environment of space.
