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The Largest Comet Ever Detected Is Creeping Closer To Earth
One of the largest comets ever discovered in space — the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet (or C/2014 UN27) — will be paying a visit to Earth’s solar system in 2031 while on its closest approach to the Sun. Predominantly made out of ice, rock, and dust, the space community also has a few other names for comets such as ‘dirty snowballs’ and ‘cosmic snowballs’ due to their peculiar structure as they orbit around a star on their strongly elliptical orbit and leave behind a trail that can be hundreds of thousands of miles in length.
Known to float in the vastness of space for thousands of years, a comet meets its demise when it gets a little too close to a star, causing the heat generated from the star to vaporize its icy body. Sometimes, a comet can also be torn apart when nearby cosmic objects with a strong gravitational pull cause the solid nucleus to break into multiple pieces. Even though the number of comets known to scientists currently stands at less than four thousand, it has been theorized that there are billions out there in the Kuiper Belt and the distant Oort cloud.
A new study says that a member of the Oort Cloud community called the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet (or C/2014 UN27) is on its way to the inner solar system and will be closest to the Sun in 2031. Research says that it is likely one of the largest and most pristine comets ever discovered, with a diameter of around 150km and a mass that is ten times larger than the Hale Bopp comet. At its closest distance to the Sun — a term that is technically known as a perihelion — the giant comet will be 10.95 AU (Astronomical Unit) from the star. And before apocalyptic theories start going wild, no, this giant comet is not going to collide with the Earth, based on its calculated trajectory.
This Time Around, It Will Go Closer To The Sun
Once thought to be a dwarf planet due to its unusually large size, the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet’s activity was first discovered earlier this year by two astronomers named Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein as it was entering the Oort Cloud. The Oort cloud defines the outer boundaries of the solar system and is said to resemble a spherical shell that also serves as a home to most long-period comets. Spotted using data collected as part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) project, the current journey of this comet started at a distance of roughly 40,000 AU from the Sun or about 6 trillion kilometers.
At the time of its observed activity in June this year, the Bernardinelli-Bernstein was at a distance of approximately 20 AU from the Sun, where 1 AU represents the mean distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the Sun. The last time this comet was close to the Sun was roughly 3.5 million years ago when its nearest approach distance was approximately 18 AU. The giant comet likely won’t be harboring any form of life, but scientists have plenty of time to study this giant oddball and find more fascinating information.
