Largest Comet Ever Discovered

The largest comet ever known is the 46-mile (74-kilometer) wide comet discovered in 1995 and became visible to the naked eye in 1996. Comet Hale-Boppwas. However, after a new study, a comet identified in 2021 took away the title of Hale-Bopp.

2014 UN271 also known as comet Berdandinelli-Bernstein The comet was the largest comet ever discovered. Calculations revealed that the comet was almost 2 times larger than Hale-Bopp.

The farthest distance this type of measurement has ever been made

Named after Gary Bernstein, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania who first discovered its presence in a dark energy research dataset, and Pedro Bernardinelli, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, the first images of the comet actually date back to 2014. At that time, the size of the star, whose size could not be calculated precisely because it was so far away, was thought to be quite large. verified it happened.

In new research led by Emmanuel Lellouch, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris, the comet’s 19.6 AU He used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in South America in August 2021, when he was away. The AU, which represents approximately the distance between the Earth and the Sun, means 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. So the comet is now almost 19 times farther from us than the Sun.

Examining the microwave radiation emanating from the comet’s mass, the team found that thanks to these reflected light wavelengths, the comet’s size could be increased. 137 km in diameter discovered that. In the research paper, such a measurement has been longest distance was stated.

Comet will be closest to Earth in 2031

Coming from the Oort Cloud, a cloud of ice and rock fragments hovering at the edge of the Solar System, the Bernstein-Bernardinelli comet orbit takes it one light-year (9.46 trillion kilometers) from the Sun, and the star completes its journey in this orbit. 5.5 million years taking. The comet, which is currently moving towards the interior of the Solar System, will reach Earth in 2031. The nearest is thought to be in its position; But don’t worry, there is nothing to be afraid of. As Live Science reports, the comet Saturn’s orbitwill be just outside.

In addition, the researchers found it very exciting to have measured the dimensions of a comet that is still very far from Earth; because as the comet gets closer to the Sun, its tail consisting of dust and gas will expand and its main body will melt. will shrink is recording. This means that Bernardinelli-Bernstein as you get closer will likely shrink significantly.

Although it cannot be seen with the naked eye, scientists; He speculates that they could learn a lot about Oort Cloud objects thanks to the comet. Lellouch and his colleagues told researchers that large telescopes such as the Atacama Array could help researchers learn about the comet’s chemical composition, temperature, rotation, and shape. to learn more states that it will enable