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With 150 km in diameter, approximately the distance between Rio de Janeiro and Cabo Frio, the comet named Bernardinelli-Bernstein is coming on the edge of the solar system towards planet Earth. It will probably be closer in 10 years.
This celestial body is about 31 times larger than the comets commonly seen by astronomers. Despite its trajectory being close to the solar system, astronomers claim that there is no possibility of it crashing into our planet.
In 2014, Bernadinelli-Bernstein was identified for the first time. At the time, it was mistaken for a small planet, known as a dwarf planet. Only now, seven years later, have scientists been able to properly identify him.
Comets are celestial bodies composed of ice, dust, and some rocky material, such as a massive snowball. The researchers were able to identify them at night thanks to their long tails, which can extend for millions of kilometers.
The comet was named after the astrophysicists who discovered it: Pedro Bernardinelli, currently PhD in physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and graduated from the University of São Paulo (USP), and Gary Bernstein, advisor and research partner of Brazilian.
According to astrophysicists, this comet has not visited the solar system for more than 3 million years and it is estimated that it takes about millions of years to make a complete turn around the Sun.
The expectation is that as the comet moves closer to Earth, scientists will be able to observe it better and acquire more information about the formation of the solar system.
According to astronomers, this may be the largest comet ever seen, considering that the 3,743 comets known to NASA are typically about three to five km in diameter, which would be the size of a village.
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