by Anura Guruge
on June 25, 2021
Yes, it is mega-exciting BUT let’s not get carried away. This is the first body that has been identified from pouring over the huge amount of imagery obtained, 2014 to 2018, from the (so called) ‘Dark Energy Survey‘. So, there very well might be quite a few bodies like this — with similar, highly-elongated orbits.
I am not convinced as yet that it is a bona fide comet. For it to be a comet, it, at a minimum, must sport a coma. A tail (or two (or three)) would be nice (& a bonus) — but not mandatory. But, we have to have a coma, i.e., the fuzzy shroud that surrounds the nucleus of the comet. The coma is formed when the sun’s radiation (mainly the heat) starts to sublimate (vaporize) icy matter from the comet’s body. I don’t think C/2014 UN271 comes close enough to the sun for sublimation to occur. No sublimation –> No coma. No coma –> NOT a comet. Simple as that. Without a coma it is an asteroid, a dwarf planet or minor planet.
I think ‘we’ have rushed to judgment way too prematurely. We need to study this more.
And just in case you are wondering, I do know a thing or two (or four) about comets. SMILE. And that was my 5th book on comets.
