[b0g]

Mega-Comet: Everything You Need To Know About The Mysterious Ice Monster From Half A Light-Year Away

A huge comet so large it’s classified as a “minor planet” has been spotted beyond Uranus coming into the inner Solar System for a once-in 600,000-years visit.

Thought to be a rare long-period comet visiting from as far as half a light-year away, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)—hence be known as Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein—is an incredible find and sure to be a major talking point in astronomy until its closest approach in 2031.

Here’s everything you need to known about the “comet of the decade:”
What and where is Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein?

It’s a huge object first discovered about 29 astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun in our Solar System. For context, Earth is one AU from the Sun and Neptune is 30 AU.

Hence Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein’s initial classification as a trans-Neptunian Object (TNO), which is defined as a minor planet or dwarf planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune.

According to the latest observations from Las Cumbres Observatory-Sutherland in South Africa, it’s now about 20 AU from the Sun, which is outside the orbit of Saturn.

It’s also just been imaged by the SkyGems Remote Telescope in Namibia and its position mapped by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Forbes art.: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamieca...h=56b6e3e72c23

Orbit: https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/sbdb.cgi?ss...=0;log=0;cad=0

[William May]

Well, the most important thing is:
Is it's closest approach LESS than 100 miles from Earth? Do we have 11 years to stockpile canned food and oxygen?
I guess what I'm basically asking is "Should we just start dating coke whores, and driving drunk?"

[b0g]

it's closest approach will be in the neighbourhood of Saturn, still with a distance bigger than that between Earth-Sun.

However...

orbit is based on only 58 observations, a dark snowball 1/2 light years away...