ntroduction: This comet was discovered by Jean- Louis Pons on July 12/1812, and re-discovered by William Robert Brooks in 1883. It’s believed that Chinese astronomers could have observed it back in the year 1300 [1]. This comet will reach its perihelion on April 21/2024 at a distance of 0.781 AU [2]. It will get closest to Earth on June 2 of the same year. The cometary nucleus is approximately 17 +/- 6 kilometers [3]. The comet is famous for its explosions: at least seven major explosions have been observed since the 19th century and in 2023 they have been detected on July 20, October 5, November 1, November 14 [4]. The comet is of the criovolcanic type and produces explosions that are created by the degassing of the carbon dioxide in the nucleus. Unlike most comets, the gas and ice inside this comet accumulate so much that this celestial object can explode violently, shooting material called cryomagma through large cracks in the nucleus’ shell [5]. Methodology:

1. STUDY OF THE COMET 12P/PONS-BROOKS. A. Q. Vodniza1
, 1
Director of University of Narino Observatory
(Universidad de Narino, Pasto-Narino-Colombia, aquijanov@gmail.com)
Introduction: This comet was discovered by Jean-
Louis Pons on July 12/1812, and re-discovered by
William Robert Brooks in 1883. It’s believed that
Chinese astronomers could have observed it back in
the year 1300 [1]. This comet will reach its perihelion
on April 21/2024 at a distance of 0.781 AU [2]. It will
get closest to Earth on June 2 of the same year. The
cometary nucleus is approximately 17 +/- 6 kilometers
[3]. The comet is famous for its explosions: at least
seven major explosions have been observed since the
19th century and in 2023 they have been detected on
July 20, October 5, November 1, November 14 [4].
The comet is of the criovolcanic type and produces
explosions that are created by the degassing of the
carbon dioxide in the nucleus. Unlike most comets, the
gas and ice inside this comet accumulate so much that
this celestial object can explode violently, shooting
material called cryomagma through large cracks in the
nucleus’ shell [5].
Methodology: From the University of Narino
Observatory, located in Pasto-Colombia, I captured
several pictures, videos and astrometry & photometry
data during several days. The images were published
by Spaceweather. Examples of some of them:
November 08 [6], November 16 [7], November 17
[8], November 18 [9], November 30 [10], December
02 [11], December 05 [12]. The images of the comet
were captured with the following equipment: CGE Pro
1400 CELESTRON telescope and STL-1001E SBIG
camera.
Conclusions: I was able to study the comet from
November 08/2023 to December 07/2023, date on
which the comet was already quite low on the horizon
of my city. I observed great brightness of the comet
during the following dates: Nov.16, Nov.17, Nov.18,
and Dec.02. While during the following dates, the
brightness was greatly reduced: Nov.08, Nov.11,
Nov.28, Nov.30 and Dec.04. I also designed the
comet's light curve. Sometimes the brightness
increased 100 times, and other times much less.
With the data I calculated the following orbital
parameters: eccentricity = 0.95470 +/- 0.00062,
orbital period=71.68 years, orbital inclination =
74.1879 +/- 0.0008 deg, longitude of the ascending
node = 255.697 +/- 0.031 deg, argument of perihelion
= 199.015 +/- 0.038 deg, perihelion distance =
0.781660 +/- 0.000408 AU, aphelion distance = 33.730
+/- 0.495 A.U. H = 8.0, G = 0.15, U = 7.3. The
parameters were calculated based on 13 observations
(Nov.08-Dec.06/2023) with mean residual = 0.32
arcseconds.
Images:
1101.pdf
55th LPSC (2024)

2. Acknowledgments: My thanks to Dr. Mario Perez
(NASA) for his important suggestions.
References:
[1] https://earthsky.org/tonight/12-p-comet-pons-
brooks-outburst-millennium-falcon-bright-2024-
eclipse/.
[2]https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/tools/sbdb_lookup.html#/?ss
tr=12P
[3] Q.Ye. et al. (2020) AAS, Volume 4, Number 7, July.
[4]https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1
&day=15&month=11&year=2023
[5] R. Miles. (2016) Icarus, Volume 272, Pages 387-
413, July.
[6]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php
?upload_id=201560
[7]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php
?upload_id=201743
[8]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php
?upload_id=201766
[9]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.php
?upload_id=201792
[10]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.ph
p?upload_id=202095
[11]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.ph
p?upload_id=202171
[12]https://spaceweathergallery2.com/indiv_upload.ph
p?upload_id=202268
1101.pdf
55th LPSC (2024)