FLORIDA – Comet colossal size 2 times large Everest Mountain dubbed C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) will pass Earth on July 14, 2022. Comet C/2017 K2, is a large Oort Cloud comet that was first discovered in 2017 using the Pan-STARRS survey tool.
According to preliminary data obtained from observations through the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the comet’s core is estimated to be between 30 kilometers and 160 kilometers wide. But subsequent observations made using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope painted a smaller picture, giving it a diameter of about 18 kilometers.
However, make no mistake, this size is still very large. For context, Mount Everest, the largest mountain on Earth, peaks at an altitude of about 8,000 meters, or eight kilometers. So the comet is twice the size of Mount Everest.
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This is supported by coma C/2017 K2, which is estimated to be 130,000 kilometers in diameter, nearly the size of Jupiter, and has a tail that can be up to 800,000 kilometers long. Although it is twice the size of Mount Everest, this comet is not the largest.
Quoted from the jpost page, Wednesday (22/6/2022), the comet consists mostly of ice and dust, along with some rocky particles. The Oort Cloud Comet is a comet originating in the Oort Cloud, a theorized area at the outer edge of the solar system that is essentially a spherical shell made up of chunks of ice debris.
It is these pieces of debris that, when they fall from the clouds, towards the Sun and become comets. However, this cloud is very mysterious. Its exact size and mass is a mystery, and even its entire existence has only been theorized because many of its comets are too far away to observe, meaning these massive astronomical structures are essentially invisible.
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When a comet flies close to the Sun, the heat causes it to warm up and release gas. These then form large bright trails known as commas and sometimes even tails. This can help make comets brighter – which, in turn, makes them easier to spot, even with the naked eye.
(Web)
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