Comets, the frozen remnants of the formation of the solar system, have always been a matter of curiosity for scientists around the world as they may contain clues as to how the universe was formed. Astronomers have now discovered an object larger than a comet at the edge of the solar system that is racing towards us.
The object, dubbed 2014 UN271, is likely to pass close by the Sun and put it into orbit of Saturn in 2031. The object was turned offstored in data from the Dark Energy Survey carried out between 2014 and 2018.
Estimated to be between 100 and 370 kilometers wide, the object is larger than normal Specification of a comet and is likely a dwarf planet.
An orbit of 600,000 years
When it was first observed in 2014, the megacomet was about 29 astronomical units from the Sun – 1 AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Since then, the UN271 has traveled nearly 7 AU from 2014 and is now almost 22 AU away from Sun. That distance brings it closer to us than Neptune. The next time it approaches planets in our solar system, it is expected to pass the Sun by only 10.9 AU and almost reach Saturn’s orbit.
One of the most unique aspects of the observation is the massive orbit of this megacomet, which extends between the inner solar system and the Oort cloud on the boundary of interstellar space for approximately 6.12.190 years. Interstellar space is the region beyond the heliosphere where the sun’s influence wears off and the solar winds slow down.
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Astronomers expect that before the object reaches Saturn and keeps getting closer to the Sun, it will develop the typical properties of a comet, which contains a tail, and the coma that forms when the material is on the surface from the heat and radiation of . The sun evaporates.
Not the first visitor from the edge of the solar system
Since in 2014 UN271 visits the outer solar system from the edge of interstellar space, it is not the first to enter our system. A cigar-shaped object traveling at 92,000 kilometers per hour entered our solar system on a trip around the sun before being sent back to interstellar space in 2017. It was called “Oumuamua” which in Hawaiian means “visitor from afar first arrives”, meaning first visitor from interstellar space discovered by Earth.
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Scientists had trained almost all observatories and telescopes to examine this visitor, who was 1,300 feet long and 2,600 feet wide. While scientists believe it came from the constellation Lyra, it did not have a tail like other comets, leading scientists to speculate that it might be an asteroid or a new class of interstellar objects.
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