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Planet-Sized Comet Hurtling Toward Our Solar System

The following article, Planet-Sized Comet Hurtling Toward Our Solar System, was first published on Flag And Cross.

For thousands and thousands, (and thousands), of years, our planet has somehow avoided any major run-in with any celestial bodies that would do harm to us.

It’s honestly a miracle.  We sling ourselves around this solar system, on an orbital track that takes us through some seriously vast field of asteroids and space debris, and the last time we really got smacked with something sizable might have been 12,000 years ago…but even that assumption is up for serious scientific debate.

But now, on the edge of our solar system, something wicked awaits…

A massive comet — so large that scientists had previously mistaken it for a dwarf planet — is hurtling through space toward our solar system and is expected to arrive in about 10 years, new research revealed.

The Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet is an estimated to be 60-120 miles across, 1,000 times larger than a traditional comet, astronomers said when its discovery was first announced in June. It is arguably the largest comet discovered in modern times, scientists said.

So, are we in any danger?

The comet, however, poses no threat to the Earth. It will pass the sun at its closest in 2031 at a distance of 10.71 astronomical units (au), putting it just beyond the orbit of Saturn.

While that’s certainly a relief, the idea that modern science was a bit blindsided by this celestial body is more than concerning.

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