{"id":89567,"date":"2021-10-12T10:24:16","date_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=89567"},"modified":"2021-10-12T10:24:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-12T14:24:56","slug":"is-this-monstrous-comet-a-cover-for-the-predicted-comet-planet-nibiru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=89567","title":{"rendered":"Is this &#8216;Monstrous Comet&#8217; a cover for the predicted comet-planet Nibiru?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>The Most Monstrous Comet Ever Known Is Headed Straight for Us<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->David Axe<br \/>\nThe Daily Beast<\/p>\n<p>Seven years ago, a pair of scientists scouring high-resolution images of space caught fleeting glimpses of a bright round object peeking from a vast cloud of icy objects more than two billion miles from Earth.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"storyimage fullwidth inlineimage\" data-aop=\"image\"><span class=\"image\" data-attrib=\"Provided by The Daily Beast\" data-caption=\"Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway\/The Daily Beast\" data-id=\"59\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:59,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;openModal&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:&quot;articleImages&quot;,&quot;o&quot;:1}\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPm2es.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f\" alt=\"Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway\/The Daily Beast\" data-src=\"{&quot;default&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;80&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;45&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPm2es.img?h=450&amp;w=799&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size3column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;35&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPm2es.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size2column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;35&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPm2es.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;}}\" \/><\/span><span class=\"caption truncate\"><span class=\"attribution\">\u00a9 Provided by The Daily Beast<\/span>\u00a0Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway\/The Daily Beast<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As if that whole scene wasn\u2019t exciting enough, the object appeared to be a huge comet. Thought to be between 60 and 100 miles wide, it was the\u00a0<em>biggest\u00a0<\/em>comet a human being had ever witnessed. And it seemed to be heading toward us, very loosely speaking.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ec-module section-layout emsinline floatleft\" data-height=\"350px\" data-nativead-tracking=\"{&quot;id&quot;: &quot;InlineMortgageRate&quot;, &quot;sdk&quot;: &quot;widget&quot;, &quot;w&quot;: &quot;300&quot;, &quot;h&quot;: &quot;250&quot;}\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/products.gobankingrates.com\/pub\/4676bc08-11ad-4872-8fef-ffbda36ebb37?targeting[keyword]=news-tech\" scrolling=\"no\" data-url=\"https:\/\/products.gobankingrates.com\/pub\/4676bc08-11ad-4872-8fef-ffbda36ebb37?targeting[keyword]=news-tech\" data-id=\"62\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:62,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;externalcontent&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/products.gobankingrates.com\/pub\/4676bc08-11ad-4872-8fef-ffbda36ebb37?targeting[keyword]=news-tech&quot;,&quot;o&quot;:4}\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Last month the discoverers of the giant object\u2014University of Pennsylvania astronomers Gary Bernstein and Pedro Bernardinelli\u2014combined their earlier data with fresh sightings of the distant object this summer and confirmed their suspicions.<\/p>\n<p>Yep, it\u2019s a megacomet. \u201cThe nearly spherical cow of comets,\u201d they quipped in the title of\u00a0<a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2109.09852.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"63\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:63,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:5}\">their paper<\/a>, which they submitted for publication in\u00a0<em>The Astrophysical Journal Letters\u00a0<\/em>on Sept. 23. And the pair have also learned the comet\u2019s trajectory has it swinging between Uranus and Saturn in 2031.<\/p>\n<p>Besides setting up an astronomically great joke, the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet is a very rare and unique prize for any scientist trying to piece together the history of the solar system. \u201cIn essence, it\u2019s a time machine,\u201d Amy Mainzer, an astronomer and comet expert at the University of Arizona, told The Daily Beast. The comet\u2019s journey is the opportunity of a lifetime for scientists anxious to learn about the conditions and building blocks of the solar system that one day led to Earth and all its life.<\/p>\n<p>A comet is a return visitor from the collisions of space rocks that created Earth and almost everything else in our corner of space a very long time ago. \u201cThe story told by the comet would tell us of what existed in the solar system billions of years ago, and we can use that to understand the things we see today elsewhere in the solar system,\u201d Bernardinelli told The Daily Beast.<\/p>\n<p>But every comet we\u2019ve been lucky enough to closely study so far has changed a lot over time\u2014either because they were too small to avoid fragmentation, or because they passed so close to the Sun that they were in the star\u2019s intense heat, altering theirchemistry. That means the story it tells about the early solar system has been, to say the least, edited by outside forces.<\/p>\n<p>Bernardinelli-Bernstein has escaped both fates. \u201cIt&#8217;s pristine,\u201d Bernardinelli said. \u201cNot a lot has happened to this object since its formation in the early days of the solar system, and so we can think of it as a window into the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because it\u2019s so much bigger than other known comets\u2014the famous Hale-Bopp comet, which itself is on the larger side, measures just 37 miles across\u2014Bernardinelli-Bernstein possesses enough gravity to hold itself together as it lazily loops through space. It\u2019s harder to break apart..<\/p>\n<p>The comet\u2019s extreme distance from the Sun also helped preserve it. \u201cIt spends most of its time in the deep freeze of the outer solar system,\u201d Mainzer explained. Models of the megacomet\u2019s orbit indicate it last entered our part of the solar system around five million years ago and got no closer than Uranus. From that distance, the Sun\u2019s heat hardly touched it.<\/p>\n<p>Mainzer says that as a result, the comet she affectionately calls \u201cBB\u201d probably resembles the original chemical state of the nebula of gas and dust that formed our solar system about 4.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"storyimage fullwidth inlineimage\" data-aop=\"image\"><span class=\"image\" data-attrib=\"Provided by The Daily Beast\" data-caption=\"The trajectory of Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it makes its close approach in 2031. The comet will zip through between the orbits of Uranus of Saturn. NASA\" data-id=\"60\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:60,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;openModal&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:&quot;articleImages&quot;,&quot;o&quot;:2}\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlQgb.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f\" alt=\"The trajectory of Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it makes its close approach in 2031. The comet will zip through between the orbits of Uranus of Saturn. NASA\" data-src=\"{&quot;default&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;80&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;45&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlQgb.img?h=450&amp;w=799&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size3column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;35&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlQgb.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size2column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;35&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlQgb.img?h=351&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;}}\" \/><\/span><span class=\"caption truncate\"><span class=\"attribution\">\u00a9 Provided by The Daily Beast<\/span>\u00a0The trajectory of Bernardinelli-Bernstein as it makes its close approach in 2031. The comet will zip through between the orbits of Uranus of Saturn. NASA<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Its close approach in 2031 will be a monumental time to study the comet\u2019s chemistry and reveal what our neck of the woods was like before there were planets zipping around. \u201cOne of the best things about this comet is that we\u2019ve got a while until it makes its closest approach to the Sun, so we\u2019ve got years to study how it brightens up as its surface gets exposed to the Sun\u2019s warmth,\u201d Mainzer said.<\/p>\n<p>That warm up act is critical, since it causes a comet to shed huge amounts of dust particles and produce that distinctive comet tail. \u201cBy watching the show as the comet creeps closer, we\u2019ll be able to tell more about which chemicals act like the propellant in the spray can, so to speak, pushing rocky particles and dust off its surface,\u201d Mainzer explained.<\/p>\n<p>What\u00a0<em>doesn\u2019t<\/em>\u00a0come off the megacomet\u2019s surface is as important as what\u00a0<em>does<\/em>. Are the reactions carbon dioxide-based or nitrogen-based? Current observations suggest Bernardinelli-Bernstein contains a lot of the former but comparatively little of the latter, Bernstein said.<\/p>\n<p>That mix matters. Nitrogen is really common on Pluto, the tiny planet (or \u201cplanetoid,\u201d\u00a0<a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/mike-brown-astronomer-pushing-a-ninth-planet-is-the-guy-who-helped-demote-pluto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"64\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:64,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:6}\">if you side with the critics<\/a>) that&#8217;s farther from the Sun than any other main planet. It\u2019s possible Pluto still has its nitrogen because it\u2019s too far from the Sun for that chemical to evaporate.<\/p>\n<p>If Bernardinelli-Bernstein really is low on nitrogen, \u201cmaybe that means that this comet was living closer to the Sun than Pluto when it was young,\u201d Bernstein said. That could make Bernardinelli-Bernstein a nearer relative to our own planet than Pluto is, chemically speaking.<\/p>\n<p>Mainzer emphasized that the the comet&#8217;s older, colder inner layers that don&#8217;t heat up easily could be even more interesting, since they may help reveal what exactly comprised the gas and dust cloud from which our solar system was born.<\/p>\n<p>We can, in other words, fill in some of the vast gaps in the chemical blueprints of our own evolution\u2014and inch closer to understanding where life, and the planets that support it, come from.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"storyimage fullwidth inlineimage\" data-aop=\"image\"><span class=\"image\" data-attrib=\"Provided by The Daily Beast\" data-caption=\"Bernardinelli-Bernstein as seen by the Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescope at Sutherland, South Africa. LOOK\/LCO\" data-id=\"61\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:61,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;openModal&quot;,&quot;t&quot;:&quot;articleImages&quot;,&quot;o&quot;:3}\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"loaded\" src=\"https:\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlZw3.img?h=486&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f\" alt=\"Bernardinelli-Bernstein as seen by the Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescope at Sutherland, South Africa. LOOK\/LCO\" data-src=\"{&quot;default&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;80&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlZw3.img?h=622&amp;w=799&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size3column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;49&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlZw3.img?h=486&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;},&quot;size2column&quot;:{&quot;load&quot;:&quot;default&quot;,&quot;w&quot;:&quot;62&quot;,&quot;h&quot;:&quot;49&quot;,&quot;src&quot;:&quot;\/\/img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net\/tenant\/amp\/entityid\/AAPlZw3.img?h=486&amp;w=624&amp;m=6&amp;q=60&amp;o=f&amp;l=f&quot;}}\" \/><\/span><span class=\"caption truncate\"><span class=\"attribution\">\u00a9 Provided by The Daily Beast<\/span>\u00a0Bernardinelli-Bernstein as seen by the Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescope at Sutherland, South Africa. LOOK\/LCO<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>For all its promise, there\u2019s also a downside to Bernardinelli-Bernstein\u2019s recent discovery. A decade or more might seem like a long time to study a single object in space. But considering how long it takes to conceptualize, fund, organize and execute a new space mission, it\u2019s actually not very long at all. The only tools we can count on for examining the megacomet are the ones we already have\u2014or which are near completion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBig telescopes are our best bet now,\u201d Bernardinelli said. Those include the same telescopes astronomers have already used to inspect Bernardinelli-Bernstein plus the optics at the Vera Rubin Observatory that\u2019s scheduled to open in 2023. Bernstein said it\u2019s possible NASA\u2019s new\u00a0<a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/this-very-weird-accidental-star-could-help-reveal-the-secrets-of-the-cosmos\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"65\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:65,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:7}\">James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>, which should launch later this year, might also spend some time pointed at the megacomet.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s highly unlikely NASA or some other space agency building a probe to intercept and collect samples from Bernardinelli-Bernstein (which is ironically\u00a0<a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/nasas-lucy-probe-is-headed-to-the-trojan-asteroids-to-uncover-the-solar-systems-secrets?ref=author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"66\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:66,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:8}\">what NASA is currently doing<\/a>\u00a0with the asteroids surrounding Jupiter).<\/p>\n<p>But it\u2019s not impossible, and Mainzer for one isn\u2019t giving up hope that some space agency might see the value in retrieving an actual hunk of ice from Bernardinelli-Bernstein\u2014and do what it takes to slap together a probe. \u201cI think BB would be a great target for an up-close-and-personal visit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><a tabindex=\"0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/the-biggest-comet-ever-discovered-bernardinelli-bernstein-is-headed-our-way?source=articles&amp;via=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-id=\"67\" data-m=\"{&quot;i&quot;:67,&quot;p&quot;:58,&quot;n&quot;:&quot;partnerLink&quot;,&quot;y&quot;:24,&quot;o&quot;:9}\">Read more at The Daily Beast.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/technology\/the-most-monstrous-comet-ever-known-is-headed-straight-for-us\/ar-AAPm6ZF\">https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/technology\/the-most-monstrous-comet-ever-known-is-headed-straight-for-us\/ar-AAPm6ZF<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Most Monstrous Comet Ever Known Is Headed Straight for Us<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}