A Gigantic Megacomet Is Erupting As It Zooms Through The Solar System

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Recent observations have revealed carbon monoxide venting from the largest comet ever seen, providing clues about its origins in the mysterious depths of the outer solar system

There⁘s a giant ball of ice barreling through the solar system right now, and it⁘s bigger than any we⁘ve seen before.

It poses no threat to Earth, but this comet, called C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), has enraptured astronomers ever since its discovery in 2021 . The hulking object, sometimes jovially called a ⁘megacomet,⁘ is 100 times bigger than most comets we see in the solar system. And now we⁘re learning more about it than ever before as it zooms toward its closest approach to our sun in 2031.

In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on June 12, Nathan Roth of American University and his colleagues report the first conclusive detection of carbon monoxide on the megacomet.

That⁘s a crucial finding because it might tell us more about the object⁘s origins, history and likely upcoming behavior as it dives deeper into the solar system. ⁘We wanted to test what drives activity in this comet,⁘ Roth says. ⁘It⁘s so far from the sun and so cold that trying to explain what makes a comet ⁘work⁘ at these distances is difficult.⁘

Some of those observations revealed bursts of activity from the comet, which sprouted an enormous, enveloping ⁘coma⁘ of expelled gas that stretches some 250,000 kilometers (155,000 miles) across (more than half the distance from the Earth to the moon). To find out the cause of this activity, Roth and his team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to observe the comet in radio waves for about eight hours in March 2024.