Largest comet approaching us

Image courtesy of NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva. 

Joel Kontinen

 

Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet will come within view ten years. It is probably the biggest comet we have seen. It is at least 100 kilometres or 62 miles across – roughly 1,000 times more massive as a typical comet.

Researchers thought it was a dwarf planet., but now they have seen that it moves in the Ooert cloud, after evolutionary thinking. There is no sign that the cloud actually exists.

Researchers have estimated that the “ comet's closest approach to Earth will occur sometime in the year 2031, when scientists predict the comet will swoop within 10.97 AU of the sun — putting it just outside of Saturn's orbit..

 Source:  

Specktor Brandon. 2021.  After 3.5 million-year hiatus, the largest comet ever discovered is headed our way Live Science 23 September .