Video: "Mother of Dragons" on Its Way to the Sun

The night sky is witnessing an event "that occurs only once in a lifetime," with the return of the "Mother of Dragons" to the solar system. The comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, or 12P for short, which is 34 km wide, is making its first visit to our inner solar system in over 70 years. NASA's STEREO-A solar observatory is closely monitoring the comet nicknamed "Mother of Dragons," also known as the "Devil Comet," and captured images as it approached its closest point to the sun, known as perihelion, on April 21. In these shots, the comet is seen passing near Jupiter from the observatory’s perspective, as a coronal mass ejection (CME), a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun, is released into space. Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is about to make its closest approach to the sun (0.78 AU). NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft is monitoring the devil comet's progress. On April 12th, it captured 12P passing by Jupiter just as a CME billowed into space.