NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the largest icy comet nucleus ever seen by astronomers, with a mass of 500 trillion tonnes, which is said to be a hundred thousand times greater than the mass of a typical “comet found much closer to the Sun”.
The US-based space agency further revealed that the comet, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) is heading towards Earth at 22,000 miles per hour.
The estimated diameter of the comet appears to be 80 miles across, with a nucleus that is about 50 times bigger as compared to those found in most known comets.
However, there is no need to worry as the comet will not get closer to the planet. “It will never get closer than 1 billion miles away from the Sun, which is slightly farther than the distance of the planet Saturn. And that won’t be until the year 2031.” said NASA.
Watch this explanation by NASA:
