Monster Comet Discovered

Astronomers have found a new comet out roughly around Neptune's distance from the Sun, and it is a biggie. At about 30 miles in diameter, it's the size of the famed Hale-Bopp, and five times as large as the body that struck Earth 65 million years ago, which at the very least helped to end the reign of the dinosaurs.

This comet makes one revolution around the Sun every 22,500 Earth years. Most of that time is spent at the farthest edge of the Sun's gravitational influence, in the Oort Cloud. NASA is just beginning to try to understand what would be required to fly a robotic mission into that area. Such a mission could take fifty years or longer to complete, and require technological upgrades and organizational innovations across the board. Having said that, however, Pioneer and Voyager probes have reached that area, and NASA maintained contact with them for pushing thirty years.

Happily, this big comet poses no threat to Earth, as its orbit never brings it that close to the Sun. Unhappily, for the same reason, the volatiles on the comet are never heated to life, so it never develops the classic comet tail. This big guy could probably put on quite a show.