Thousands of times the largest comet in history, an ordinary comet! First visit to the solar system in 300 years | Technology | 新头壳 Newtalk

The Dark Energy Survey announced the discovery of a giant comet that will reach its closest position to the sun in 2031. The comet is about 100-200 kilometers in diameter, and it may be the largest celestial body ever discovered in the Oort cloud region in the outer solar system.

This mysterious celestial body was discovered through the dark energy sky survey in 2014 (the project was first discovered and named 2014 UN271. The project team discovered it from data collected for six years. In the following four years, it conducted nearly 40 times on 2014 UN271. Observing and estimating its size, speed and trajectory, it is found that the 2014 UN271 orbit is highly eccentric (elliptical), but the exact period is still uncertain, estimated to fall between 400,000 and 1 million years. Its size is even more alarming, with a diameter of 100 to 200 kilometers. Undoubtedly, it is the largest Otter Cloud object discovered so far. This comet is named “Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein” (Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein) after two scientists. Its size is Thousands of times as many ordinary comets can be seen in the solar system.

According to a report in Astronomy magazine, Comet Bernstein has a very narrow orbit. It took millions of years to fly from the Otter Cloud all the way into the solar system.The Haute Cloud is a spherical cloud group mainly composed of ice microplanets orbiting the sun. It is about 29 AU (2.5 billion miles) away from the sun. [40 億公里]) Or close to the distance between Neptune and the sun.

According to recent images, the surface of Comet Bernstein has heated up enough to form a coma-this means that when the ice on the surface of the comet begins to sublime or directly changes from a solid to a gas, a cloud of dust and gas appears around the comet. Its current visual magnitude is 20, which describes the brightness of celestial bodies in the sky. The smaller the value, the higher the brightness. The apparent magnitude of the sun is -27 and the moon is -13. Although it is so huge, researchers estimate that a large amateur telescope is still needed on the ground to see it.

Professor Gary Bernstein, the astronomer who discovered this comet, said: “It is an honor that we have discovered it. It may be the largest comet ever seen, or at least the largest that has been studied in depth. One, and we discovered it when it was very far away, and we had the opportunity to observe how it evolves and heats up during the journey.”

Bernstein added: “This is the first time this comet has visited the solar system in 300 years!”

The largest comet in history is thousands of times larger than an ordinary comet! First visit to the solar system in 300 years