Astronomers have discovered a giant comet that is headed towards the Sun. It is the largest comet ever spotted in current times and is 1,000 times bigger than a usual comet! In fact, it is so big that they have classified it as a small planet.

The comet is called C/2014 UN271 or Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein. Two astronomers, Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein, discovered it.

A comet is basically a space snowball that looks like a bright star with a tail. So, this giant space snowball is about 200 kilometres wide. Compare that to the comet Hale-Bopp, one of the brightest we have seen, is only 40 kilometres wide.

The comet started its journey from the distant Oort cloud beyond the solar system. It will make its closest approach to the Sun in 2031.

How did astronomers discover this far away comet?

Scientists found it from data which the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) collected. This camera is on a telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile.

 

There are many more interesting news articles and information on space for all you kids. We have news and stories on stars, telescopes, galaxies, planets, exoplanets, black holes and much more. Or how about learning more about NASA, CNSA, ISS, ALMA, Hubble, ISRO? Well, keep reading our space news for children on Curious Times. And of course, keep your curiosity sky high!

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