The largest comet ever discovered is C2014 UN271 also known as Bernardinelli Bernstein
The largest comet ever discovered is C/2014 UN271 (also known as Bernardinelli-Bernstein).
Astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to confirm that its solid center, or nucleus, is the largest ever detected.
Here are the mind-boggling details:
Bernardinelli-Bernstein measures a staggering almost 140 kilometers wide (about 85 miles). To put that in perspective, it’s approximately 50 times larger than most known comets!
Bernardinelli-Bernstein hails from the Oort Cloud, a gigantic, hypothetical region of icy objects surrounding our Sun at the deepest and most distant stretches of our Solar System.
The Oort Cloud extends so far away that it’s thought to reach at least a quarter of the way toward the next nearest star system, Alpha Centauri.
Objects like Bernardinelli-Bernstein occasionally emerge from this cosmic hinterland, gravitationally lured toward the Sun.
These comets are thought to have formed early in the inner Solar System and were later flung out to its outermost fringes by the gravitational effects of giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn.
The comet’s brightness at such a large distance hinted at its substantial size, and now it’s officially confirmed as the largest long-period comet ever detected.
Imagine a comet wider than the state of Rhode Island hurtling through space—a cosmic wonder that challenges our understanding of these icy wanderers!