Extremely eccentric minor planet to visit inner solar system this decade

[Napoleon]

The object in question is designated 2014 UN271, and it was only recently identified in data from the Dark Energy Survey captured between 2014 and 2018. Size estimates place it anywhere between 100 and 370 km (62 and 230 miles) wide. If it’s a comet, it’s quite a big one, especially for one coming from the outer solar system.

And it turns out, astronomers are about to witness the closest pass of this incredible round trip. Currently, 2014 UN271 is about 22 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun (for reference, Earth is 1 AU from the Sun). That means it’s already closer than Neptune, at 29.7 AU. And it’s not stopping there – it’s already traveled 7 AU in the last seven years, and at its closest in 2031, it’s expected to pass within 10.9 AU of the Sun, almost reaching the orbit of Saturn.

Cant emphasize enough how cool it is to have the opportunity to study an object from the Oort Cloud in detail. I hope the world’s space agencies start planning a mission soon. That an object of this size has been wandering into the inner solar system and we didn’t even realize it until 7 years after it crossed the orbit of Neptune serves as a reminder of our vulnerability.

 

[AmNat]

Cant emphasize enough how cool it is to have the opportunity to study an object from the Oort Cloud in detail. I hope the world’s space agencies start planning a mission soon. That an object of this size has been wandering into the inner solar system and we didn’t even realize it until 7 years after it crossed the orbit of Neptune serves as a reminder of our vulnerability.

2014 UN271 has an extremely eccentric orbit, and still won't come within ten times our distance from the Sun. It would very hard for an object from that far out to collide wit the Earth.

 

[Evilroddy]

Yup. It's very interesting. This is a once in four million years opportunity. I hope the powers that be can send a probe with deep drilling capacity to assess the object's surface and sub-surface chemistry.

What makes the planetesimal or hellova big comet so interesting is that its eccentricity implies (just implies) that it could have been once captured by our solar system long ago and its origins may lie outside our solar system.

Having been so long in the very low light/heat of the outer solar system, it is covered with pristine chemicals from the Oort Cloud which, if they are not too volatile and sublimate off its surface, could provide us with a picture of the chemistry of the objects in the Oort Cloud. If this is an extra-solar system body then the chemistry could be even more fascinating. For under the Oort Cloud surface deposits may be clues to how such objects formed around other stars.

Too cool!

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy

 

[calamity]

2014 UN271 has an extremely eccentric orbit, and still won't come within ten times our distance from the Sun. It would very hard for an object from that far out to collide wit the Earth.

It’s not one of Those space rocks. But, it might bring a few along for the ride.

 

[calamity]

Cant emphasize enough how cool it is to have the opportunity to study an object from the Oort Cloud in detail. I hope the world’s space agencies start planning a mission soon. That an object of this size has been wandering into the inner solar system and we didn’t even realize it until 7 years after it crossed the orbit of Neptune serves as a reminder of our vulnerability.

If it’s an ice ball, it should exhibit a tail.

 

[beefheart]

Cant emphasize enough how cool it is to have the opportunity to study an object from the Oort Cloud in detail. I hope the world’s space agencies start planning a mission soon. That an object of this size has been wandering into the inner solar system and we didn’t even realize it until 7 years after it crossed the orbit of Neptune serves as a reminder of our vulnerability.

It is cool stuff, that is why I have always been an astronomy geek (thought I haven't brought out the 10 inch Meade lately). Something new and interesting happens all the time, I just wish I had dark skies...

 

[beefheart]

If it’s an ice ball, it should exhibit a tail.

Probably not, at that distance.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

It is cool stuff, that is why I have always been an astronomy geek (thought I haven't brought out the 10 inch Meade lately). Something new and interesting happens all the time, I just wish I had dark skies...

Yeesh. I haul around an 8-inch LX-90 when I want to image or observe. Been thinking about upgrading to a ten, but the weight is becoming a larger consideration as I get older...

Plus I'd need a new mount (GEM over a wedge), power supply, etc. It's a multi-thousand-dollar undertaking. Not sure my wife would stand for it...

 

[beefheart]

Yeesh. I haul around an 8-inch LX-90 when I want to image or observe. Been thinking about upgrading to a ten, but the weight is becoming a larger consideration as I get older...

Plus I'd need a new mount (GEM over a wedge), power supply, etc. It's a multi-thousand-dollar undertaking. Not sure my wife would stand for it...

I have an equitorial mount, very hard to use and calibrate....and it weighs 25 pounds

 

[Grizzly Adams]

I have an equitorial mount, very hard to use and calibrate....and it weighs 25 pounds

How old is it? I've been looking hard at the Celestron CGX or CGX-L and they look pretty straightforward to use, especially if you have a polar scope. Though yeah, they are beasts. I'm just not going to be satisfied with my LX-90 wedge and a fork-mounted scope -- I've yet to get it aligned precisely enough for imaging through the tube for any real length of time. My error is usually several minutes from the pole for the initial alignment and the fact that accurately setting the latitude is nearly impossible doesn't help. My hope would be that the EQ can get me over that last hump to decent imaging.

 

[beefheart]

Its old....serial ports early 2000's. Its a GPS version, I think its the LX10 GPS. I bought the wedge separately, never could get a very good alignment. And, trying to hoist the scope onto the wedge by yourself is tough, heavy and hard to get it right into the holes.

At some point, I'll sell it all and get a new shiny scope with USB ports and a separate tracking scope on it and all that. I could image OK for deep sky stuff, but not so much for planets, but if I went past 45 seconds, there was enough of a wobble to smear the images in my DSLR.

And my DSLR is old, I used to have software to hook it up to a tablet and control that, they don't support it anymore, the new Canon DSLRs are all bluetooth now...

 

[ecofarm]

Life rafts.

 

[calamity]

It appears this is likely not a "minor planet" of diameter 100km, but rather just another comet.

On 22 June 2021, cometary activity was observed and reported by Tim Lister at the Las Cumbres Observatory's telescope in Sutherland, South Africa and Luca Buzzi at the SkyGems Remote Telescope in Namibia.[10][11][8] The object's heliocentric distance was 20.18 AU (3.02 billion km) and it was observed to be brighter than predicted, with a slightly elongated coma reported by SkyGems to be approximately 15 arcseconds wide.[10][11] Cometary activity has previously been observed as far as 25.8 AU (3.86 billion km) from the Sun on a few comets, for example C/2010 U3 (Boattini).[12] Cometary activity at these distances can be generated by supervolatiles such as CO and CO2.

C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli–Bernstein) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Holy crap! This thing takes 9 million years to complete a loop.

...the outbound orbital period will be approximately 4.5 million years with an aphelion distance of about 54,000 AU (0.9 ly).[1] The object is only very loosely bound to the Sun and subject to perturbations by the galactic tide while in the Oort cloud.

 

[Bodi]

Yup. It's very interesting. This is a once in four million years opportunity. I hope the powers that be can send a probe with deep drilling capacity to assess the object's surface and sub-surface chemistry.

Anybody that has seen the movie "Life" would not be so eager to start collecting samples.

 

[Grizzly Adams]

Its old....serial ports early 2000's. Its a GPS version, I think its the LX10 GPS. I bought the wedge separately, never could get a very good alignment. And, trying to hoist the scope onto the wedge by yourself is tough, heavy and hard to get it right into the holes.

At some point, I'll sell it all and get a new shiny scope with USB ports and a separate tracking scope on it and all that. I could image OK for deep sky stuff, but not so much for planets, but if I went past 45 seconds, there was enough of a wobble to smear the images in my DSLR.

And my DSLR is old, I used to have software to hook it up to a tablet and control that, they don't support it anymore, the new Canon DSLRs are all bluetooth now...

I got my LX90 in 2006 or 2007. It came with Autostar but I was never able to get it to work very well. A couple years ago my wife got me a Stella module for Christmas and it works really well.

When it comes to planetary imaging I don't even try to take a still frame, but instead take video and then stack the frames with Registax. It results in images that are 2-3 times sharper than a single still. I'm accurate enough to hold the shutter open for thirty seconds through the tube. I can push two minutes piggybacked with a zoom lens, but that's about it. I also don't like to babysit the rig and I live far enough out in the country that I can set it up in my driveway and not be worried about too much light pollution or theft so I run my Canon 70D with the fancy intervalometer while I go back in the house and pour myself a drink.