The Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, identified in 2021, is officially the biggest comet ever observed.
The images showing the comet date back to 2014, which is why that year is in the comet's official scientific designation. Bernardinelli and Berstein noticed the tiny dot moving as they studied images from subsequent years.
At that time, the comet was too distant for researchers to get a good gauge on its size, though they could tell it was likely quite large.. Its orbit takes it as far as a light-year from the sun – and takes 5.5 million years to complete.Bernardinelli-Bernstein in October 2017 as seen by the Dark Energy Camera mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
It's exciting to get a measurement while the comet is still so distant, the researchers added, because Bernardinelli-Bernstein will likely shrink significantly by the time it gets closer to Earth. As the comet gets closer to the sun, its tail of dust and gas will expand, and its main body will melt and shrink.
The comet will not be visible to the naked eye, as Hale-Bopp was at its closest approach, but scientists expect to learn a lot about Oort Cloud objects from the visitor.Large telescopes like the Atacama Array will allow scientists to learn more about the chemical composition of the comet as it passes, Lellouch and his colleagues wrote. They should also know more soon about the comet's temperature, spin, and shape.
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