Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks continues to enchant Italian amateur astronomers: after the image taken during its approach to the Sun, it was once again immortalized by the Palidoro Amateur Astronomers Group while at sunset it lights up the indigo-coloured sky above an old farmhouse with its trail at the gates of Rome.
"This is truly a magical sunset view of comet 12P/Pons Brooks taken on March 21, 2024 at Casale Delle Pietrische, property of the Manziana Agricultural University", explain the amateur astronomers in a note.
The image was obtained by Marco D'angelo, who took a single 30-second shot of the farmhouse illuminated by a torch, while for the sky he took 10 shots of 60 seconds each.
Everything was then elaborated with the help of Giuseppe Conzo, president of the Palidoro Amateur Astronomers Group.
Comet 12P returns to visit the Sun every approximately 71 years and for this reason it falls into the family of periodic comets, the same as the more famous Halley's comet.
Discovered on 12 July 1812 by the astronomer Jean-Louis Pons, comet 12P was rediscovered in its next passage (1883) by William Robert Brooks, from whom it took its name.
Its distinctive feature, as astrophysicist Gianluca Masi of the Virtul Telescope Project explains, are important increases in brightness, called 'outbursts'.
During its current passage, about ten have already been recorded since last July: the first has given its coma an irregular shape that makes it resemble the famous Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars and which has earned it the nickname 'horned' comet .
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