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It was over three million years since it was last visited in the neighborhood. A comet that may be the largest ever seen is now on its way from the edges of the solar system and will swing past relatively close to the sun and the earth.
The celestial body measures an estimated 100 to 200 kilometers in diameter, which is about ten times larger than most other comets detected.
Its formal name is C / 2014 UN271, but it is also named Bernardinelli-Bernstein after the astronomers who discovered it.
The comet is a lump of ice that probably originates from the so-called Oort cloud, a “cloud” of comets that surrounds our solar system. It moves in an elongated, elliptical orbit around the sun and is currently slightly closer to it than Neptune. At this rate, in 2031 it will be as close as it will get.
The last time the comet passed so close to Earth was more than three million years ago, long before there were humans. Amateur scouts may need a pretty good telescope to see it.
“We’ve had the privilege of discovering perhaps the largest comet we’ve ever seen – or at least one larger than anyone who has studied closely – and we spotted it early enough for people to see evolution as it approaches. and warms up “, says Gary Bernstein, one of the two people who found the comet, in a press release.
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