Comet three times the size of Mount Everest is now speeding towards Earth

Scientists revealed that a “horned” comet that is three times the size of Mount Everest has exploded and is heading straight for Earth.

According to Live Science, the blast started on October 5 from the gigantic cryovolcanic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, which is the size of a small city and has a massive 18.6 miles diameter. As a point of comparison, Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, is 5.5 miles tall or 29,029 feet.

The recent celestial incident occurred in July, according to the Science Times, and this was the second time this intergalactic ice cube had exploded in the previous four months.

The British Astronomical Association, which is constantly monitoring 12P, became aware of this explosion when they noticed that it looked to be hundreds of times brighter as a result of the light reflected by its coma- the haze of gas surrounding its centre.

The Peculiar ‘horns’

According to Richard Miles of the British Astronomical Association, “the two ‘horns’ may be caused by a peculiarly shaped cryovolcanic vent with some sort of blockage causing material to be expelled with a weird flow pattern.”

For those who are unaware, such eruptions take place when a significant amount of gas and ice builds up and ignites, much to a frozen Coke can, causing the comet’s icy interior to erupt out of sizable breaches that emerge in the nucleus crust.

As seen in the images available, the arctic blast in this case caused the coma to grow “horns” like a kind of intergalactic Beelzebub.

According to Space Weather Archive, scientists have also drawn comparisons between the demonic shape and the Millennium Falcon spacecraft from “Star Wars.” In April 2024, a comet roughly the size of a city is anticipated to be seen from Earth.

Although the exact reason of the horns is unknown, researchers think that it may be related to 12P’s nucleus’ ‘pasta strainer-like’ form.

There’s no need to get ready for “Deep Impact” just yet, despite 12P’s foreboding trajectory and shape. The cosmic hailstone won’t be visible to the human eye until it passes by Earth in 2024 at its closest point in its 71-year orbit around the sun.

After being launched back into the solar system, this comet won’t begin its cosmic homecoming trip until 2095.

Since July 20, when the intergalactic snowball burst its stack for the first time in 69 years, 12P has exploded twice.

The horn-like emissions from this explosion were 7,000 times broader than the comet itself.

The coma has subsequently returned to its normal size but might draw greater attention the next year if it keeps exploding, which Space Weather Archive predicts will happen.

According to Miles, 12P is one of 20 known comics with active ice volcanoes, which were found by Jean-Louis Pons on July 12, 1812.

The most well-known is perhaps 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann, a volcanically active body that erupted on December of last year in its greatest eruption in 12 years, ejecting about 1 million tonnes of cryomagma into space.

You might also be intersted in – Scientists find mountains 3 to 4 times higher than Mount Everest