Stunning 'Devil Comet' Could Photobomb This April's Total Solar Eclipse

The comet commonly referred to as the devil comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks (12P), will be positioned close to the sun during the April 8 total solar eclipse.

Come April, stargazers might be able to witness a spectacular celestial display of the "devil comet" during the total solar eclipse. The comet commonly referred to as the devil comet, 12P/Pons-Brooks (12P), will be positioned close to the sun during the April 8 total solar eclipse. Experts also predict that the volcanic comet may be visible to the naked eye, especially if it blows its top before the big event, Live Science reported.

Notably, the Halley-type periodic comet was first discovered by Jean-Louis Pons on July 12, 1812, and then independently rediscovered by William Robert Brooks in 1883. The city-sized comet has a width of 17 kilometers and orbits the sun in a highly elliptical pattern approximately every 71 years.

The comet occasionally erupts when radiation from the sun cracks open its icy shell, allowing it to shoot cryomagma--a combination of ice and gas-- into space. The comet's coma, the cloud of gas and dust enveloping its core, intensifies following these eruptions, lending the comet a noticeably brighter appearance for several days.