The massive, coal-black behemoth lurking in our solar system
In short: Astronomers have identified a comet nucleus so large it dwarfs the state of Rhode Island. Traveling at 22,000 miles per hour, this icy giant is much larger and heavier than typical comets, offering a rare, deep-freeze glimpse into the primordial materials of our solar system.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers have confirmed the unprecedented scale of Comet C/2014 UN271, also known as Bernardinelli-Bernstein. The nucleus has an estimated diameter of approximately 80 miles, making it roughly 50 times larger than the nuclei of most known comets. An estimated 500 trillion tons makes up its mass, exceeding the weight of an ordinary inner-solar-system comet by a factor of one hundred thousand.
Measuring such an object is a significant technical challenge. Because the nucleus is enveloped in a vast, dusty shell of gas known as a coma, Hubble could not visually resolve the solid body directly. Instead, the team, led by Man-To Hui of the Macau University of Prime Science and Technology, used a computer model to subtract the coma's glow from Hubble's images. Researchers found the nucleus remarkably dark and massive by evaluating this information alongside Chilean ALMA radio data, leading David Jewitt to label it "blacker than coal".
This comet is a traveler from the Oort Cloud, a hypothesized spherical nesting ground of trillions of comets. While these objects were likely tossed out of the inner solar system billions of years ago by the gravitational influence of Jupiter and Saturn, they only return toward the Sun when disturbed by passing stars. C/2014 UN271 follows a 3-million-year-long elliptical orbit and is expected to reach its closest approach to the Sun—about 1 billion miles away—in the year 2031.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Hubble Confirms Largest Comet Nucleus Ever Seen - NASA Science
- Also: Comet nucleus
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