The reason why the dinosaurs of planet Earth became extinct 65 million years ago was the impact of a comet 10 kilometers in diameter . It caused the extinction of 75% of species, including dinosaurs. Specifically, it fell in the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico), forming a crater 180 kilometers in diameter and 20 deep.
What is Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, the largest discovered to date, like?
That comet was “only” 10 kilometers long, while now one is approaching the Earth which, according to a team of astronomers from the University of Pennsylvania, led by Pedro Bernadinelli and Gary Bernstein, is approximately 90 kilometers long and 160 wide . His name is Bernardinelli-Bernstein.
The finding was described in research published in ‘The Astrophysical Journal Letters’, and it is the largest comet discovered to date. The comet travels at high speed millions of kilometers from Earth .
But how did astronomers find out? Pedro Bernardinelli was analyzing information that the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (Chile) telescope had captured between 2013 and 2019. He was looking for objects that will be found beyond the orbit of Neptune. To do this, he set up an algorithm that detects if the same spot is in different photographs taken by the telescope and if the spot follows the laws of motion of celestial bodies.
After a while, an alarm alerted that the same body appeared in 30 different images . Such was the size of the comet that Pedro Bernardinelli thought it was a mistake, so he asked Gary Bernstein, his superior, to help him confirm the data. But everything was fine.
Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is returning to Earth, a journey that began billions of years ago, when the planet was in the process of formation.
“We conclude that C / 2014 UN 271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) is a ‘new’ comet in the sense that there is no evidence of a previous approach of more than 18 astronomical units of the Sun since the ejection into the Oort Cloud. In fact, this may be the most pristine comet ever observed, as we have detected it before it enters the orbit of Uranus, and it may never have been in any previous orbit , ”the researchers write.
Finally, it should be noted that, despite its large size, even when it is closest to Earth, it will not be visible to the naked eye. It can only be seen with the most powerful telescopes .
