Recently, American astronomers discovered a celestial body of extraordinary proportions. The corpse, named after Bernardinelli Bernstein, is named after the two Scientists, officially as a file comet On June 23, a week after she was spotted. The site says the piece is probably the largest of its kind ever in recent history. space.
Giant comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein is now in SkySafari. Looks like my first chance to focus on (from home) will be May 1, 2031 pic.twitter.com/RmvfA5fc8C
– Rob Tisley (@StargazerRob) June 30, 2021
The element, also called C/2014 UN271, is about ten times larger and has a mass 1,000 times greater than average comets. Thus, scientists estimated that its diameter ranged from 100 to 200 km. Specialists struggled to make accurate assessments because it was still so far off the ground.
Visual with very powerful tools
To calculate its size, astronomers had to rely on the amount of sunlight it reflected. However, the object should come close to our planet and be closest to it in 2031. However it will still be at a distance of 11 astronomical units from the blue planet, or approximately 1.65 billion km. Even as close to Earth as possible, the comet will only be visible using particularly powerful instruments.
In addition to its size and trajectory, C/2014 UN271 stands out from other celestial elements because of its rarity in our inner solar system. Its last date dates back to three million years ago, that is, at a time when our planet, among other things, was inhabited by Australopithecines. The comet was born in the Oort cloud, 40,000 AU from Soleil.
Never before has a corpse been spotted heading toward Earth from such a distance. Scientists hope to learn a lot from the study of this celestial body, especially when it comes to the formation of huge celestial bodies and the motions of the planets.
