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A massive "devil comet" reported to be three times the size of Mount Everest is hurtling towards Earth.
The 12P/Pons-Brooks cryovolcanic comet has exploded and is reportedly expected to be closest to Earth in June 2024, experts told ABC News. The comet, which is estimated to have a diameter of at least 17 kilometers (10.5 miles), is described as being unusually bright compared to others and could possibly be visible to the naked eye at its closest point.
The 12P/Pons-Brooks undergoes huge increases in brightness after two major eruptions -- having undergone the first in July 2023 and the second earlier this month -- unlike most other comets, which typically get warmer and brighter as they get closer to the sun, turning ice to gas and pulling dust away.
"These outbursts … [have] brought this object from being dim enough that you can only really see it with big professional telescopes to, in a couple of cases, something people can see from their backyard," said Dr. Theodore Kareta, a postdoctoral researcher at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, via ABC News.
"There aren't that many comets that have outbursts, these sudden increases in brightness, that are so strong, and even fewer that have them a couple of times during one orbit. It seems like Pons-Brooks ... is just really active," he added.
The coma of the comet -- the fuzzy cloud around its nucleus -- has a shape resembling two "devil horns," which defers greatly from most other comets. The 12P/Pons-Brooks is not usually visible, but could be as it passes over the United States, Canada and Mexico during a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.