Comet caught strangely zigzagging its way through space | Space

It doesn’t have the name recognition of Halley’s Comet, but this enormous snowball zipping through space has fascinated at least one astronomer night after summer night for its shape-shifting tail.

Dan Bartlett, an astrophotographer based in east-central California, caught Comet Olbers zigzagging across the night sky this week. But each time he looks up through binoculars or his camera, the comet takes a different form.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to witness this creature’s behavior with modern day technology,” Bartlett told Mashable. “And what a creature this comet has been.”

Comet experts say while the sharp kink in Olbers’ tail may look strange to the average eye, the cause of its jagged appearance is a well-understood phenomenon.

Hundreds of years ago, people considered comets bad omens. Today, scientists know these icy bodies as time capsules of the ancient solar system…