The Largest Comet ever found 100 to 200 KM in Diameter, will come near Earth after 10 Years
Scientists have Discovered a Comet that is 1000 times Larger than Ordinary Comets. It is the Largest Comet ever discovered by humans in the World of Space. Its name is Comet C/2014 UN271. According to the Calculations of Scientists, the diameter of this Icy Comet can be 100 to 200 Kilometers. It was Discovered by Pedro Bernardinelli, A Graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, and astronaut Gary Bernstein.
Scientists said that the Size of Comet C/2014 UN271 could be Much Larger, because it is far away from Earth. That's why we could not measure it accurately. Its size has been told on the basis of Sunlight falling on it. It will come closest to our earth in the year 2031. But even then it will be far away from earth.
Astronomer Gary Bernstein said in his statement that we were lucky that we have discovered such a big Comet. Gary Bernstein is a Scientist at the National Optical Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). It was First Discovered by Pedro Bernardinelli from photographs taken with a Telescope called the Dark Energy Survey. The Distance of this comet from Earth was about 20 Astronomical Units (AU) More than the Distance of the Sun. There are 150 Million Kilometers in an AU.
When this Comet will come closest to Earth in the Year 2031, then its distance will be 11 AU. That is Slightly more than the Distance of Saturn from the Sun. That is, to see it, a very powerful telescope will be needed. Apart from this, the Special thing about this comet is that it travelled to our Solar System last 3 Million years ago. This is when the ancestor of Humans, Lucy used to walk on the Earth.
This Comet C/2014 UN271 originated in the OORT cloud, Located at a Distance of 40 thousand AU from the Sun. This is an Area Where there is a Gathering of Billions of Comets. The Comet was detected when Pedro and Gary were Zooming in on a 570 Megapixel CCD imager from the Dark Energy Survey Telescope to Examine it. This Comet was discovered by the Cerre Tololo Inter-American Observatory (TIAO) located in Chile.
TIAO was created to study the 300 million galaxies in the universe. But during this time it has also detected many comets and trans-Neptune objects. These are icy worlds orbiting outside Neptune. Pedro and Gary picked it out of 800 TNOs. From 2014 to 2018, the tail behind this comet was not visible, whereas comets usually have tails.
Its tail is visible in the picture released by the Las Cumbres Observatory in early 2021. That is, now a layer of gas and dust is accumulated around it. According to the scientists of NSF, finding such comets shows how such objects are formed in space. How such big things are not visible to humans, how are they related to the creation and structure of the universe.
In the year 2022, NSF is building two more powerful observatories. The first is the Vera C Rubin Observatory which could be commissioned in 2022. The second European Southern Observatory Extremely Large Telescope, which is likely to be launched by the year 2025. These telescopes will also reveal many other mysteries present in space in the future. Because the duration of future missions in space will be less. Spacecraft or aircraft are not able to get information about the arrival of such comets. This would threaten the mission.
At present, there is a problem with the Hubble Telescope's computer. Which is no longer being tried to rectify. The Hubble Telescope used to help in the study of comets till now. But for the last several years, there were constant problems in it, for which the astronauts had to go to it to fix it.