© Will Gater. Used by permission.A graphic comparing the size of Comet 2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) to other solar system objects.
A mega-comet - potentially the largest ever discovered -
is heading from the Oort Cloud towards our direction. Estimated to be 100-200 kilometers across, the unusual celestial wanderer will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031.
However, the closest it will come to Earth is to the orbit of Saturn.Astronomers say Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (C/2014 UN271) could be the largest member of the Oort Cloud ever detected, and it is the first comet on an incoming path to be detected so far away.
The graphic above, by astronomer
Will Gater compares the size of the comet to other Solar System objects.
The comet was discovered Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein, from the University of Pennsylvania
earlier this year. They were scouring through data from the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile. They found data of this object that was originally collected from 2014-2018, which did not show a typical comet tail, and the object was therefore thought to be a dwarf planet.
But within a day of the announcement of its discovery via the Minor Planet Center, astronomers using the Las Cumbres Observatory network took new images which revealed that it has grown a coma in the past 3 years, and that it was rapidly moving rapidly through the Oort Cloud. The object was then officially classified as a comet.
Comment: See also the following series of articles from author, Pierre Lescaudron:
Of Flash Frozen Mammoths and Cosmic Catastrophes
Did Earth 'Steal' Martian Water?
Volcanoes, Earthquakes And The 3,600 Year Comet Cycle
The Seven Destructive Earth Passes of Comet Venus