Large Comet

[XFool]

Do you feel lucky?

Nasa scientists spy 'largest ever comet'

BBC News

A comet with a nucleus 50 times bigger than normal is barrelling towards Earth at 22,000 miles per hour.

"Nasa's Hubble telescope has determined the comet's icy nucleus has a mass of about 500 trillion tonnes and is 85 miles (137km) wide - larger than the US state of Rhode Island."

[monabri]

Just don't look up!

[pje16]

Yes... but also in the article

"But not to worry. The closest it will get is one billion miles away from the Sun, and that won't be until 2031."

[88V8]

I wonder what tiny fraction of these stellar wanderers we have logged.... there's one out there with our name on it...

V8

[ursaminortaur]

I wonder what tiny fraction of these stellar wanderers we have logged.... there's one out there with our name on it...

V8

Any long period comet from the Oort cloud with our name on it will like this comet have an orbit of around 3 million years and hence will never have been seen before. And it isn't impossible, though highly unlikely, that we might be hit by an interstellar visitor similar to Oumuamua which again would never have been seen before.

The only threats we are in a position to catalogue are those with relatively short orbits close to the Earth (both asteroids and short period comets originating from the Kuiper belt) and the fractions of those we have catalogued depend upon the size and brightness of the objects (and, of course, estimates of the numbers out there).

For an idea of the fraction of near Earth asteroids of various sizes and near Earth comets we have found see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_object

[XFool]

For an idea of the fraction of near Earth asteroids of various sizes and near Earth comets we have found see

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-Earth_object

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfvo-Ujb_qk

Sleep well!