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2014 UN271 to Make Close Pass to Saturn’s Orbit
A trans-Neptunian object has been found and confirmed using data from the Dark Energy Survey, and at the end of this decade, it will make its way almost to Saturn’s orbit.
This story is one that is just beginning, really. In an article first reported in New Scientist and rapidly being picked up everywhere else, a trans-Neptunian object has been found and confirmed using data from the Dark Energy Survey. The object, called 2014 UN271, was captured in data from 2014, 2016 and 2018, and is either a minor planet or a large comet, somewhere between 100 and 370 kilometers in diameter. [Ed. note: This body is now officially a comet named C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein).] Its orbit is about 600,000 years, with the furthest distance at 0.6 light-years, and incredibly eccentric or elliptical. And at the end of this decade, it will make its way almost to Saturn’s orbit.
One of the hopes for UN271 is that it will be a comet, and as it approaches closer and closer to the Sun, even at its great distance, it will show the characteristic signs of a coma, outgassing and glowing in the night sky. But before anyone gets too excited that this might be a big, showy comet, it won’t be. Citizen astronomer Sam Deen calculates that UN271 will only get as bright as Pluto or maybe Charon. This means it won’t be visible to the unaided eye, but observatories…
