Suara.com – a comet huge, perhaps the largest ever detected, hurtling toward the solar system.
According to new research published on the arXiv.org preprint server, the estimated arrival time is 10 years from now.
The comet, known as komet Bernardinelli-Bernstein or C/2014 UN271, has a diameter of at least 62 miles (100 kilometers), about 1,000 times larger than a regular comet.
This size is so large that astronomers previously mistook it for a dwarf planet, announced the discovery of a comet in June 2021.
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But a closer analysis of the object reveals that it is moving rapidly through the Oort cloud, a vast glacial dump billions of miles from Earth.
The object appears to be heading towards us and even has a glowing tail or “comma”, behind it.
It is thought to be an indication of an icy comet approaching a relatively warm inner solar system.
Now, researchers have studied the massive comet in greater detail and they have a new estimate of its journey to the sun.
For starters, large rocks pose no threat to the Earth.
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Currently, Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB) is crossing the Oort cloud at a distance of about 29 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 29 astronomical units (AU).
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