Close-up for comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, approaching the Sun. Photographed by the Palidoro Amateur Astronomers Group (ANSA) in Italy.
The comet follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun that lasts about 71 years. It is now approaching its perihelion, the closest point to our star, which it will reach on April 21st. The celestial body in question is, in fact, a cryovolcanic comet: this means that, from time to time, a combination of ice and gas called 'cryomagma' erupts.