The largest comet in history flies to the center of the solar system: it's almost a planet

Scientists recently identified object 2014 UN271 by analyzing Dark Energy Survey data collected between 2014 and

2018.Recall that the Dark Energy Survey is an astronomical survey in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum, the purpose of which is to study the dynamics of the expansion of the Universe and the growth of its large-scale structure.

A preliminary assessment of the object showed that its width ranges from 100 to 370 km. Scientists suggest that this is an analogue of a dwarf planet or a comet.

2014 UN271 itself is larger than a huge cometSarabata C/1729 P1 and one of the largest Oort Cloud objects ever discovered. “It looks like a dwarf planet!” said Sam Dean, a citizen astronomer, in a post on the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML) forum.

2014 UN271 orbital trajectory diagram, JPL Solar System Dynamics

Researchers were also interested in the object's orbit. 2014 UN271 appears to have been traveling between the inner Solar System and the Oort cloud for 612,190 years.

Oort cloud - hypothetical spherical regionSolar system, which is the source of long-period comets. Instrumentally, the existence of the Oort cloud has not been confirmed, however, many indirect facts indicate its existence.

Now UN271 2014 is at about 22astronomical units (AU) from the Sun (for reference, the Earth is at a distance of 1 AU from the star). In the near future, namely in 2031, the object will pass within 10.9 AU. e. from the Sun, almost reaching the orbit of Saturn.

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