A MEGA-COMET that’s 120 miles long is the largest ever discovered in our Solar System.
The gigantic icy object is the most distant comet ever found and will be visible from Earth in 2031, according to new research.
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It was identified by astronomers at Pennsylvania State University after sifting through data collected by a massive telescope in Chile.
Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein was named on June 24 after Pedro Bernardinelli Gary Bernstein – the two astronomers who discovered it.
Based on the amount of sunlight it reflects, the comet is estimated to be between 62 and 125 miles (100-200 km) long.
That makes it 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times.
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“With a reasonable degree of certainty, it’s the biggest comet that we’ve ever seen,” Colin Snodgrass, an astronomer at the University of Edinburgh, told the New York Times.
Bernardinelli-Bernstein, formally named Comet C/2014 UN271, was discovered using data from the Dark Energy Survey.
The project used a special telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile to snap images of distant space objects in the red part of the visible spectrum and in the near infrared.
Over the course of six years, the project mapped out 300 million galaxies from billions of light years away.
Based on the team’s calculations, Bernardinelli-Bernstein is currently inside Neptune’s orbit.
It will shift toward the inner Solar System over the ten years, making a close approach with Earth in 2031.
What’s the difference between an asteroid, meteor and comet?
- Asteroid: An asteroid is a small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most are found in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter) but they can be found anywhere (including in a path that can impact Earth)
- Meteoroid: When two asteroids hit each other, the small chunks that break off are called meteoroids
- Meteor: If a meteoroid enters the Earth’s atmosphere, it begins to vapourise and then becomes a meteor. On Earth, it’ll look like a streak of light in the sky, because the rock is burning up
- Meteorite: If a meteoroid doesn’t vapourise completely and survives the trip through Earth’s atmosphere, it can land on the Earth. At that point, it becomes a meteorite
- Comet: Like asteroids, a comet orbits the Sun. However rather than being made mostly of rock, a comet contains lots of ice and gas, which can result in amazing tails forming behind them (thanks to the ice and dust vapourising)
Stargazers on Earth should be able to spot the comet around that time with a small telescope, according to researchers.
Comets are icy remnants as old as the Sun and may have helped both water and organic matter to spread across the Solar System.
Bernardinelli-Bernstein therefore presents a fantastic opportunity to study the makeup of the elusive objects.
While the comet won’t pass close enough to Earth to send a spacecraft to it, astronomers will still be able to explore it using powerful telescopes.
“Comets are like cats. You never know what they’re going to do,” Meg Schwamb, an astronomer at Queen’s University Belfast, told the NYT.
“I’m ready to get the popcorn.”
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
