Hubble pics reveal the mega comet is wider than Rhode Island

It looks like a pinprick of light in snapshots, but scientists have confirmed that the space snowball is the largest comet ever observed.

The nucleus of comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein is 50 times larger than the average comet, according to a team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope. The ball of ice, dust, and rock is more than double the width of Rhode Island and weighs 500 trillion tons. It is more than 40 percent larger than the runner-up.

The scale of this comet is significant because it provides a clue about the size range of comets in the distant outskirts of our solar system. The Oort Cloud is a sphere of icy objects. NASA says the comets there have been too far away to be seen directly.

The Oort Cloud contains trillions of icy comets. David Jewitt, a UCLA astronomer and co-author on the new research, said in a statement that Bernardinelli-Bernstein may be the tip of the iceberg. We hope the pun was intended.

The comet was detected by a giant telescope. It took years of intensive computing to identify the remote object.

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Scientists knew it was huge, but hadn't confirmed it. A team used Hubble to take pictures of a comet. The Astrophysical Journal Letters published new findings on April 12.

The comet is an amazing object because it is so far away from the sun, which heats up particles off close comets.

The astronomer from the Macau University of Science and Technology said they guessed the comet might be big.

Among the oldest objects in the solar system are comets. These bodies were leftover from the formation of other planets.

The previous record-holder for largest comet was C/2002 VQ94, with a nucleus estimated to be 60 miles across. It was discovered in 2002 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project.

On left, Hubble's image of Bernardinelli-Bernstein; at center, a computer model of the comet's coma; on right, the nucleus with the modeled coma removed. Credit: NASA / ESAm / Man-To Hui (Macau University of Science and Technology) / David Jewitt (UCLA) / Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Hale-Bopp is no competition for Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein. Credit: NASA / ESA / Zena Levy (STScI)

The comet named after Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein is going to get close to the sun. Though the imposing boulder has been described as "headed this way", space is a big place. It will never be close to the sun like the moon is to the sun. It will reach that point in 2031.

It is not coming close to Earth.

In a few million years, the comet will loop back to where it came from in the Oort Cloud.