NEWLY FOUND MEGA COMET MAY BE THE LARGEST SEEN IN RECORDED HISTORY

The comet is truly a behemoth, beating other known comets thousandfold

- Elizabeth Howell

Agiant comet found far out in the Solar System maybe 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it the largest ever found in modern times. Officially designated on 23 June, it’s called C/2014 UN271, or BernardinelliBernstein after its discoverers, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli and astronomer Gary Bernstein.

Astronomers estimate this icy body has a diameter of 100 to 200 kilometres (62 to 124 miles), making it about ten times wider than a typical comet. This estimate is quite rough, however, as the comet remains far away from Earth, and its size was calculated based on how much sunlight it reflects. The comet will make its closest approach to our planet in 2031 but will remain at quite a distance even then.

“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,” Bernstein said on 25 June from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory or NOIRLab.