NASA has now discovered the largest comet nucleus ever observed thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope. Named C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), the massive comet spans more than 80 miles across in diameter, making it larger than the state of Rhode Island. At roughly 50 times the size of an average comet, it boasts a mass of a staggering 500 trillion tonnes. According to NASA, the comet has been falling towards the Sun for well over a million years and is now headed towards Earth at a whopping speed of 22,000 mph.
Fortunately for us, the behemoth comet will never reach us to cause any destruction. NASA says it’ll never get any closer than 1 billion miles away from the Sun, which is just slightly farther than where Saturn is located, and it’ll reach that location by 2031.
“This comet is literally the tip of the iceberg for many thousands of comets that are too faint to see in the more distant parts of the solar system,” said David Jewitt, a professor of planetary science and astronomy at UCLA and the co-author of the new study. “We’ve always suspected this comet had to be big because it is so bright at such a large distance. Now we confirm it is.”
Elsewhere in the tech world, Elon Musk says Tesla’s Optimus robot can begin production as early as 2023.
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