Comet 3 Times Size of Everest Returns to Sun After 71 Years—to Converge With Total Solar EclipseA comet returning after seven decades and putting on a spectacular show in our solar system is expected to soon appear at the highly-anticipated April total solar eclipse over North America.It took 71 years—but Comet P12/Pons-Brooks has finally returned to our inner solar system after traversing its gargantuan elliptical orbit around the sun. The last time it reached perihelion (its point closest to the sun) was in May 1954, the same year Elvis Presley recorded his second demo at Sun Studios in Memphis.It must have been a cold and lonely journey for the comet. But in 2020, astronomers finally reacquired visual contact with P12/Pons-Brooks. And as it headed down the last leg toward the sun, its visage was only enhanced.Essentially a conglomeration of frozen gas and space dust leftover from the formation of the solar system ages ago, comets have a dense, cold nucleus that often lies dormant. When they near the sun, however, solar radiation causes dramatic outbursts in them as frozen gas sublimates, forming often-spectacular clouds of debris around them called coma.So, it wasn’t a question of if but simply when P12/Pons-Brooks would erupt upon its return journey to the sun. That question was finally answered in July 2023 with the first of its series of outbursts, causing the comet to ignite into a green, markedly horseshoe-shaped coma and form a signature comet tail.Comet P12/Pons-Brooks features a horseshoe-shaped coma and signature comet tail. (Thomas Roell/Shutterstock)Comet P12/Pons-Brooks features a horseshoe-shaped coma and signature comet tail. (Thomas Roell/Shutterstock)More outbursts followed throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2023, increasing the comet’s brightness as it grew warmer. Until it finally became visible to the naked eye in early March 2024, glowing with a brightness magnitude of 5.5. The comet’s intensity will soon reach its peak as it approaches perihelion at 0.781 astronomical units (72.6 million miles) from the sun on April 21.