As we speak, the comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (Pons-Brooks, for short) is making its way around the inner region of the Solar System for the first time in more than 70 years – and might soon become visible to the naked eye.
At approximately 30 kilometres (19 miles) across, this giant icy lump is comparable in size to Mount Everest, says astrophysicist Dr Paul Strøm, and is “one of the brightest known periodic comets”
A Halley-type comet, Pons-Brooks completes its journey around the Sun every 71.3 years and was last spotted in our skies in 1954.
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