Comet Ponce-Brooks captured as it passes by Vega [우주를 보다] – Seoul Newspaper

▲ Comet Ponce-Brooks (right) with a 71-year cycle passing next to Vega in the constellation Lyra. Photo = Dan Bartlet On the 4th, periodic comet 12P/Pons-Brooks was captured along with Vega, the alpha star of Lyra in the northern hemisphere. Vega, the fifth brightest star on Earth’s night, is about 25 light-years away from Earth, and its much fainter comet is about 21 light-minutes away.

​In recent months, explosions have dramatically increased the brightness of Comet Ponce-Brooks. Space enthusiasts, who nicknamed it the ‘Devil’s Comet’ due to its horn-like appearance, responded that the distorted shape of the comet’s large coma (nucleus) was similar to the Millennium Falcon, a spaceship that appears in the movie Star Wars. Ponce-Brooks, a Halley-type comet with a period of 20 to 200 years, is a short-period comet with an orbital period of 71 years, and last visited the inner solar system in 1954. ▲ 12P/ Ponce taken on October 7th. -Brooks Appearance Comet Ponce-Brooks is expected to pass perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun, on April 21, 2024, just two weeks after the path of the total solar eclipse on April 8 crossed North America. At this time, the absolute magnitude of the comet is about 5, making it one of the brightest known periodic comets. Additionally, Comet Ponce-Brooks will reach perigee, its closest distance to Earth, on June 2, 2024, at a distance of approximately 1.55 AU (232 million km), and is expected to brighten to an apparent magnitude of 4.5. The comet’s nucleus is estimated to be about 30 km in diameter.

The Ponce-Brooks Comet was discovered at the Marseille Observatory by Jean-Louis Ponce in July 1812, and was later rediscovered by William Robert Brooks in 1883.

Gwangsik Lee, Science Columnist joand999@naver.com