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The last Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet approached the Sun at 18 AU around 3.5 million years ago, but the next approach will be at around 11 AU.
One of the largest comets ever discovered in space out – comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (or C / 2014 UN27) – will visit the Earth’s solar system in 2031 as it comes closest to the Sun. Mainly made up 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 when they orbit around. a star in their strongly elliptical orbit and leave behind a trail that can stretch for hundreds of thousands of kilometers.
Known to float in the vastness of space for thousands of years, a comet dies when it gets too close to a star, causing the heat generated by the star to vaporize on its icy body. Sometimes a comet can also be torn apart when nearby cosmic objects with strong gravitational pull cause the solid nucleus to break into several 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 of them in the Kuiper Belt and the distant Oort Cloud.
A new study indicates that a member of the Oort Cloud community called Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (or C / 2014 UN27) is on its way to the inner solar system and will be closest to the Sun in 2031. Research indicates that it is likely one of the largest and most pristine comets ever discovered, with a diameter of around 150 km and a mass ten times greater than comet Hale Bopp. At its closest distance from the Sun – a term technically known as perihelion – the giant comet will be 10.95 AU (astronomical unit) from the star. And before doomsday theories break loose, no, this giant comet is not going to collide with Earth, based on its calculated path.
This time it will get closer to the sun
Once considered a dwarf planet due to its unusually large size, the activity of comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein was first discovered earlier this year by two astronomers named Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein as it entered the Oort cloud. The Oort Cloud defines the outer limits of the solar system and is said to resemble a spherical shell that also serves as a home for most long-period comets. Spotted using data collected as part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) project, the current journey of this comet began at a distance of about 40,000 AU from the Sun, or about 6,000 billion kilometers.
At the time of its observed activity in June of this year, the Bernardinelli-Bernstein was at a distance of about 20 AU from the Sun, where 1 AU represents the average distance between the center of the Earth and the center of the Sun. The last time this comet approached the Sun was about 3.5 million years ago, when its closest approach distance was about 18 AU. The giant comet is unlikely to be home to any life form, but scientists have plenty of time to study this giant eccentric and find more fascinating information.
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Source: arXiv
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