GIANT COMET C/2014 UN271 (BERNARDINELLI-BERNSTEIN) IS IT HEADING TOWARD EARTH?
In November 2010, astronomers Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein
captured the first images of a new celestial body never before seen in the dark energy survey
archives at the Cerro Tololo Interamericano Observatory in Chile, abbreviated as CTIO.
This new object was observed by chance for the first time when it was 3 billion miles
from the Sun, almost the average distance to Neptune, and the data pointed to it being an
enormous rocky and icy body. This comet was baptized with the name C / 2014 UN271 and
later with the name (BERNARDINELLI-BERNSTEIN) in honor of the astronomers who discovered it.
But this April 12, 2022, NASA confirmed that it is the giant comet ever seen by
astronomers in history, cataloging it as a mega comet in the direction of the Sun.
Is this comet a danger to the Earth? Stay to find out.
"Introduction" SIZE
NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN A COMET Since the discovery of the
comet (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), astronomers focused all their attention on discovering
its direction and composition; however, being such a distant object, this task was not easy.
To determine the actual size of a comet, it is necessary to isolate its icy nucleus from the
cloud of dust and steam that surrounds it; this cloud that surrounds a comet is called a coma and
is composed mainly of water and other minerals that are released by the effect of sublimation
that occurs when the comet approaches the Sun. Astronomer Man-To Hui, from the Macao University
of Science and Technology, Taipa, Macau, lead author of the research,
mentioned that they used images from various telescopes such as Hubble, CTIO, as well
as radio observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.
Once they managed to obtain images of the comet, the astronomers performed a
simulation with a mathematical model based on the brightness and apparent position of the comet,
isolated the brightness coming from the coma, and this left them with an image in which the utterly
isolated nucleus can be observed, resulting in the comet being approximately 85 miles wide,
breaking the previous record held by comet C/2002 VQ94 which has a diameter of 59 miles.
This makes the comet (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) the largest discovered to date;
some scientists have even given it a new classification naming it a mega comet,
as a way to indicate that we are in the presence of something that has never been seen before.
It should be stressed that this work of the scientists who managed to determine the size
of the comet is a task that required a lot of ingenuity and combined effort
since it is an object that is about 2 billion miles away and that is barely visible with the
most powerful telescopes we have. COMET COMPOSITION
The observations made by the team of researchers led by Man-To Hui have yielded critical data on
the chemical and morphological composition of the comet. It is estimated that the comet's nucleus is
as black as carbon and that the coma surrounding it is composed mainly of carbon monoxide.
What is most striking is that although it is very far away,
the comet presents an intense brightness compared to other objects that are at the same distance,
which could be an indicator that inside the comet, there are exhalations of gases
or steam that increase the area of the coma and give it an unusual brightness.
Usually, comets from these regions of the solar system are made of rock and ice;
when they approach an orbit close to the Sun, the solar radiation strips the outermost layers
of the comet's nucleus, causing the ice to be sublime and become vapor.
That is why comets have that characteristic tail that extends for millions of kilometers in
the opposite direction to the Sun; this makes them one of the most amazing celestial bodies
in the solar system. ORIGIN
This comet comes from the hypothetical nesting place of trillions of comets,
called the Oort Cloud. The diffuse cloud is thought to have an inner edge of 2000 to
5000 times the distance between the Sun and Earth. Its outer edge could extend at least
a quarter of the distance to the closest star to our Sun, the Alpha Centauri system. That
is to say that if the Oort Cloud existed, it would measure approximately one light year.
Despite the many investigations and observations with telescopes that have been carried out over
many years, the reality is that we still do not know with certainty whether or not the
Oort cloud exists because we can't see it. The Oort Cloud, first hypothesized in 1950
by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort, remains a scientific theory because the countless
comets that make it up are too faint and distant to be observed directly.
Ironically, this means that the largest structure in the solar system is
almost invisible. It is estimated that NASA's pair of Voyager spacecraft won't reach the inner
realm of the Oort Cloud for another 300 years and could take up to 30,000 years to traverse.
It is expected that with the new generation of optical telescopes, such as the James Webb or
the ELT, we will be able to observe in better detail these areas of the solar system that are
still a complete mystery and thus determine whether or not there is a cloud of comets
that surrounds the solar system. Still, above all, we hope to be able to find more comets
like (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) in the hope that none of them pose a latent danger to humanity.
PANSPERMIA THEORY On September 9, 2021, the Las
Cumbres Observatory detected an apparent explosion on a comet (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). According
to the report, the comet was illuminated with a magnitude of 0.65; this means that the detected
explosion could have been caused by the expulsion of large amounts of material either in geysers or
by the detachment of a large mass of rock. At the time of the explosion, the comet
(Bernardinelli-Bernstein) was 19.89 Astronomical Units (3 billion km) from the Sun and 19.44
Astronomical Units (2900 million km) from Earth. Despite being so far away, the explosion could be
observed from Earth with telescopes, suggesting that large comets expel these materials
more frequently than previously believed, depositing organic material on nearby planets.
This discovery feeds the hypothesis that life on Earth and the water in the oceans
could have come from comets. In addition to the Earth,
the places with the most water in the solar system are the comets; these are practically
made of frozen water; when a comet approaches the Sun, the solar wind releases its outer layers.
When the solar system formed about 5 billion years ago, these events could have been much
more frequent. Comets that were still close to the Sun likely collided with the Earth,
depositing large amounts of ice and water that gave rise to the oceans we currently have.
If this is the case, could it not be that life on Earth could also have come from comets?
There is no evidence that this is the case, but it is a possibility that gains strength with the
discovery of this new comet. TRAJECTORY
The comet (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) has fallen toward the Sun for more than 1 million years.
It is estimated to reach perihelion (the closest approach to the Sun) around January 23,
2031, approaching a distance of 10.95 AU, just outside Saturn's orbit.
The comet will make its closest approach to Earth around April 5, 2031, at a distance of 10.11 AU;
this is much farther than Saturn is, so you can rest assured,
the comet is not heading to Earth and does not pose a danger to humanity, we are safe for now.
Orbital calculations estimate that its orbital exit period will be about 4.5 million years
with an aphelion distance of about 54,000 AU (0.9 al), this being the only time we will be
able to see the comet; once it gets far enough away, it will be just a memory that we will
never see again. THE OORT CLOUD
Comets in the hypothetical Oort Cloud didn't form that far from the Sun; instead, they are thought
to have been thrown out of the solar system billions of years ago by gravitational pulls
produced by the massive outer planets when the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn were still evolving.
Distant comets only travel back to the Sun and planets if their distant orbits are disturbed by
the gravitational pull of a passing star. Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein follows an
elliptical orbit of 3 million years, taking it as far from the Sun as about half a light-year. The
comet is now less than 2 billion miles from the Sun, falling almost
perpendicular to the plane of our solar system. At that distance, temperatures on the comet are
minus 348 degrees Fahrenheit. However, that's warm enough for carbon monoxide to sublime from the
surface and produce the dusty coma that envelops the comet and gives it that characteristic glow.
Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein provides an invaluable clue about the size distribution
of comets in the Oort Cloud and thus their total mass. Thanks to this, now the estimates
of the mass of the Oort Cloud vary widely, reaching up to 20 times the mass of the Earth.
THE MEGA COMET AND THE TERRIFYING TRUTH It is about 50 times larger than typical comets.
The Bernardinelli-Bernstein mass is about 500 billion tons; this is a hundred thousand times
greater than the mass of a typical comet. We are in the presence of the enormous
comet discovered in all history and one of the heaviest; we are fortunate that it
is not heading towards the Earth, but it is also a wake-up call to what we do not know.
Although many may not know it, the regions beyond Neptune's orbit are areas of which very little
is known. Only a few probes have been in those regions, and our telescopes and radio telescopes
are not yet powerful enough to pick up the cold and small objects found in this region.
According to David Jewitt, professor of planetary science and astronomy
at the University of California, Los Angeles. Angeles (UCLA), and co-author of the new study,
this comet is the tip of the iceberg of many thousands of comets that are too faint to see in
the most distant parts of the solar system. It was always suspected that this comet had to be
significant because it was very bright even though it was very far away. Still, it has been confirmed
not only to be significant, but it is the largest that has been seen and that it might not be alone.
The chances that there are more comets like Bernardinelli-Bernstein are very high;
now more than ever, it is when we must worry about finding them because if we
come across the terrifying news that any of these are heading towards the Earth,
we will be much more likely to save ourselves if we find it 50 years in advance
than if we find it just a few months before the fateful day of the disaster.
Let's hope that when we encounter the dreaded doomsday comet, we'll be ready to know what to do.