The largest comet ever known was the 46-mile (74-kilometer) wide comet Hale-Bopp, discovered in 1995 and made visible to the naked eye in 1996. However, after a new study, a comet identified in 2021 took away the title of Hale-Bopp.
2014 Berdandinelli-Bernstein comet, also known as comet UN271, is 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, a cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvania who first discovered its existence in the dark energy research dataset. The first images of the comet, named after Bernstein and Pedro Bernardinelli, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, actually date back to 2014. At that time, the star, whose size could not be calculated precisely because it was so far away, was thought to be quite large, which has been confirmed by recent studies.
The new research, led by Emmanuel Lellouch, an astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris, used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in South America in August 2021, when the comet was 19.6 AU 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 discovered that the size of the comet was 137 km in diameter, thanks to these reflected light wavelengths. The research paper stated that this is the longest distance ever made of such a measurement.
The comet will be at its closest approach to Earth in 2031
The Oort Cloud, a cloud of ice and rock hovering at the edge of the Solar System. The orbit of the Bernstein-Bernardinelli comet from the Sun takes it one light-year (9.46 trillion kilometers) from the Sun, and it takes the star 5.5 million years to complete its journey in this orbit. The comet, which is currently moving towards the inner part of the Solar System, is thought to reach its closest position to Earth in 2031; But don’t worry, there is nothing to be afraid of. As Live Science reports, the comet will stay just outside Saturn’s orbit.
In addition, it is quite exciting that researchers 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 and shrink. This means that Bernardinelli-Bernstein will likely shrink significantly as it approaches Earth.
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 colleagues note that large telescopes such as the Atacama Array will allow researchers to learn more about the comet’s chemical composition, temperature, rotation and shape.
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