Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein Discovered 6 Years After It Was First Imaged

The discovery of Comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein was announced just over a week ago, however the first images of the object were taken by the Dark Energy Survey back in 2014. It's unusually far from the sun and won't pass closer than 10.9 AU to the sun. Based on the brightness it could be 200km across, but we have a hard time knowing for sure due to the extreme distance.

[FoxFortino]

I know both Bernardinelli and Bernstein! Bernstein was my undergraduate research advisor, and I worked with Bernardinelli a bit too! They're both lovely people.

[SvetlinTotev]

I started getting into astronomy about 8 years ago and this is the first time I've seen this explanation of the Oort cloud. You blew my mind. It all makes sense now. Its weird seeimingly random shape has such a simple explanation and yet I've never thought of it before. I always found it weird how the natural solar system evolution would lead to a spherical distribution of orbiting objects because I never considered the possibility for highly eccentric orbits. It's just stuff that blackboard diagrams don't explain well.... Youtube is school 2.0

[nate_d]

Dark matter telescope: I can't find dark matter, well, here's this regular matter

[thePronto]

"Hey, I just got a comet named after me!"
"Cool, when will it next be viewable from Earth?"
"Maybe 4502021."
"What?"

[MadeinHell]

It still blows my mind that we have such detailed pictures of Churyumov-Gerasimenko. When you put them up in the video I had to loop back and look at them again because they're just so amazing.

[oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin]

Really feeling that Arecibo absence now...

[aperson]

Wasn't a discoverer of it, but I was one of the folks who followed it up and accidentally had a hand in publicizing this discovery. If any folks have questions on this comet, feel free to ask here! I'll do my best to answer.

[paulwalsh]

Comet Hale-Bopp was the first comet I personally observed when I first got into observing...I sketched drawings of it and drew my own personal sky maps with the locations of the main constellation stars and Hale-Bopp...
... this video brings back fond memories that I haven't thought of in literally decades...

[armandomercado]

Looking forward to seeing a photo of Halley's comet at aphelion in a few years.

[somedude]

8:10 I love astronomy simulations like this, they're absolutely beautiful to watch.

[jesnoggle]

Thank you for pointing out that the Oort Cloud is not a static thing, objects in it orbit just spend most of their time out there. I did not realize that.

[colinmaynard]

Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp got me quite complacent about comets in the ’90s

[jonas]

5:56 it never occurred to me that the tail of a comet could point in the opposite direction of where its moving. Damn you counterintuitive vacuum of space

[vitalknife_]

Don't know if you will see this or not but I am very grateful for your analysis of these types of things. I always look forward to it. I see some little thing in the news about space and you come through with great info. Thanks Scott

[mxlzzu]

Someone has to start training Bruce Willis and his drill team already, or they will do it at the last minute again

[floydthedroid]

Thank you Scott, great stuff as always.

[melsuarez]

Nice job, as always. Got a glimpse of how this stuff is done. Thanks.

[nagualdesign]

(6:40) IIRC there was a solar eclipse when Hale Bopp was in our skies. Pretty spectacular if you ask me.

[Ron]

I did see the Hale-Bopp comet when it visited us.

[Tuuminshz]

Would be so amazing if we sent a mission to this once in a 4 million year opportunity