Mysterious Space Object Could Be Record-Breaking Comet
The outer solar system is littered with big chunks of rock and ice, but rarely do their orbits bring them close enough to Earth for us to get a good look. And then there’s 2014 UN271, an approaching object that astronomers believe to be a huge comet on a million-year orbit around the sun. In a few years, UN271 might get close enough to put on a neat fireworks display, reports Gizmodo.
UN271 most likely originated in the Oort Cloud, a theorized cluster of icy chunks of rock hovering at the solar system’s edge. This material is believed to be left over from the solar system’s formation, but it’s too far away to see clearly. Every now and then, an object from the Oort Cloud is perturbed out of its orbit and falls in toward the sun. And we would then (probably) call that object a comet.
The mystery object is currently about 22 AU from Earth. One AU (or astronomical unit) is the average distance between Earth and the sun. The edge of the solar system is about 123 AU distant, and the Oort Cloud begins around 2000 AU beyond that. It’s extremely difficult to spot comets before they get toward the inner solar system and form a coma or tail. UN271 is somewhere between 62 and 230 miles across — it could therefore be one of the largest comets ever seen. Even being so large, it took years of observation and analysis to nail down its orbit and position.
