Scientists photograph explosive city-sized 'devil comet' with hidden spiral

The dreaded "devil comet" is back in the news as an astronomer has decided to snap an incredible photograph of its core, rather than the extremely long iconic tail.

The comet that many astronomers around the world are now focussing their instruments on is none other than 12P/Pons-Brooks, a 10.5 mile-wide (17 kilometers) ball of ice and rock that circles the Sun at an extremely elliptical orbit that takes 71 years to complete.

12P is currently on its way to make its closest approach with the Sun, which is scheduled to happen sometime in April, and while it approaches, the Sun's rays continuously heat up the surface of the comet, melting its icy outer shell, creating gas that then turns into what we know as the iconic comet tail, or as astronomers call the coma.

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As 12P hurdles its way toward the Sun, it's heated up, creating pressure underneath its crust. This pressure then builds to a point where it breaks the exterior of the comet, causing massive outgassing events that are then photographed by astronomers. More specifically, astronomers witnessed for the first time in 69 years an eruption that caused "devil horns" to appear in telescopes.

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These horns were simply violent outgassing of the comet's exterior. Since then, astronomers have been eyeing 12P's long tail, but on March 9 astrophotographer Jan Erik Vallestad decided to take a photograph of the comet's core, revealing a previously unseen spiral within its coma. The astrophotographer used special image processing techniques to reveal the spiral, which is likely caused by the spin of the comet as it hurdles through space.

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