Giant Comet Springs to Life: Bernardinelli-Bernstein Activity

Let’s dive in! 😉 Astronomers have just made a landmark discovery by detecting molecular activity—specifically carbon monoxide (CO) jets—in comet C/2014 UN271 “Bernardinelli-Bernstein,” the largest comet ever observed. This breakthrough, made possible by the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), was achieved when the comet was a chilly 16.6 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun—well beyond Saturn’s orbit. ALMA’s Breakthrough Detection In March 2024, ALMA’s powerful array of 66 r
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