A Giant Comet's Surprising Gas Blasts

Bernardinelli-Bernstein: A Celestial Giant

A huge comet, Bernardinelli-Bernstein, is making waves in the solar system. It's not just its size that's impressive—it's also acting in ways that surprise scientists.

This comet, one of the largest ever found, is releasing jets of carbon monoxide gas, and it's doing this while still very far from the Sun.

Scientific Discoveries and Surprises

Scientists used the ALMA radio telescope in Chile to spot these gas jets. The comet is about 16.6 astronomical units from the Sun, which is way beyond Neptune's orbit.

Normally, comets this far out are pretty quiet, but not this one. It's actively releasing gas, which challenges what we thought we knew about comets in these cold, distant places.

A Comet of Unprecedented Size

Bernardinelli-Bernstein is a real giant. Its nucleus is about 140 kilometers wide, making it ten times bigger than most comets.

For comparison, Halley's Comet, which is famous, has a nucleus only 11 kilometers wide.

This comet comes from the Oort Cloud, a far-off region of the solar system. It takes about 600,000 years to orbit the Sun, and it won't get close to Earth anytime soon.

Future Expectations and Scientific Impact

As the comet gets closer to the Sun, scientists expect it to release even more gases, like methane and formaldehyde.

These gas bursts are helping us understand what comets are made of and how they behave. The data from this comet might change what we think about other comets from the Oort Cloud.

New Insights into Comets

Studying Bernardinelli-Bernstein is giving us new insights into comets. It shows that these icy objects can be more active than we thought, even when they're far from the Sun.

This comet is a big deal, and it's helping us learn more about the mysteries of our solar system.