Largest comet ever discovered is heading toward the sun — but no need to panic

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

Earlier this year, astronomers discovered the largest comet ever, which is nearly 100 miles wide. Now, further study reveals this behemoth is heading toward the sun — but don’t worry, it won’t be posing any kind of threat to us on Earth as it won’t come any closer than the orbit of Saturn.

The comet, named Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers, is estimated to be around 95 miles in diameter and was identified using data from the Dark Energy Survey. Since its discovery, researchers have been poring over data to learn more about it and will soon publish a paper about it in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Illustration showing the distant Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it might look in the outer Solar System. — This illustration shows the distant Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it might look in the outer Solar System. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is estimated to be about 1000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times. NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva

The comet has an extremely elongated orbit and is currently heading in from the Oort cloud — a hypothesized group of icy bodies lying far beyond the orbit of Pluto. According to the new paper, it will reach its perihelion, or the point at which it comes closest to the sun, in 2031. It will come within 11 AU of the sun (astronomical units, where 1 AU is equivalent to the average distance between the sun and the Earth), which puts it beyond the orbit of Saturn.

Recommended Videos

This gives scientists an exciting opportunity to study the comet up close(ish), using tools like the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This observatory will be performing a sky survey to identify many comets, even those much smaller than Bernardinelli-Bernstein. The observatory will also track the comet as it approaches to allow researchers to learn more about objects from the Oort Cloud and what they can tell us about the early solar system.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

“We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen — or at least larger than any well-studied one — and caught it early enough for people to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up,” discoverer Gary Bernstein said earlier this year. “It has not visited the Solar System in more than 3 million years.”

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

James Webb spots the most distant active supermassive black hole ever discovered

Crop of Webb's CEERS Survey image.

As well as observing specific objects like distant galaxies and planets here in our solar system, the James Webb Space Telescope is also being used to perform wide-scale surveys of parts of the sky. These surveys observe large chunks of the sky to identify important targets like very distant, very early galaxies, as well as observe intriguing objects like black holes. And one such survey has recently identified the most distant active supermassive black hole seen so far.

While a typical black hole might have a mass up to around 10 times that of the sun, supermassive black holes are much more massive, with a mass that can be millions or even billions of times the mass of the sun. These monsters are found at the heart of galaxies and are thought to play important roles in the formation and merging of galaxies.

Space

Astronomers just spotted the largest cosmic explosion ever seen

Artist’s impression of a black hole accretion.

Astronomers recently observed the largest cosmic explosion ever seen, far brighter than a supernova and lasting for much longer too. They believe that the outpouring of light is due to a supermassive black hole devouring a large cloud of gas.

Some of the brightest events seen in the sky are supernovae, which are huge explosions that occur when a massive star comes to the end of its life. But the recently observed event, called AT2021lwx, was 10 times brighter than any known supernova. Supernovae also typically last for a few months, but this event has been shining out for several years.

Space

We now know what caused comet ‘Oumuamua’s strange orbit

An artist’s depiction of the interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua, as it warmed up in its approach to the sun and outgassed hydrogen (white mist), which slightly altered its orbit. The comet, which is most likely pancake-shaped, is the first known object other than dust grains to visit our solar system from another star.

Remember what feels like decades ago, when we were visited by a comet from another solar system in 2019? Interstellar comet ‘Oumuamua captured headlines when its cigar-shaped body was spotted following an unusual orbit through our solar system, and subsequent research suggested it might once have been part of a Pluto-like planet and was possibly pancake-shaped.

One thing particularly puzzled astronomers, though, because the comet was accelerating away from the sun in a path that seemed strange. Now, researchers say they have an explanation for its unusual pathway, and it isn't aliens -- it's a natural phenomenon called outgassing.