NASA scientists discover ‘largest comet ever seen’

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  • BBC News World

image source, NASA, European Space Agency, Man To Hui (University of Macau)

caption,

The image on the left shows the comet on January 8, 2022. The image on the right shows the “comma,” an envelope around a comet’s nucleus.

A comet with a nucleus 50 times larger than usual is moving close to Earth at 35,000 kilometers per hour.

NASA’s Hubble Telescope determined that the comet’s icy core has a mass of about 500 billion tons and a width of 137 km, which is larger than the US state of Rhode Island.

But do not worry. Closest is 1.6 billion km from the sun, and it won’t be until 2031.

It was first seen in 2010, but only now has Hubble been able to confirm its existence.

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