97: Biggest Comet Ever!

Astronomers have spotted the biggest comet ever! And it's heading for Earth! Except (a) it's not heading towards Earth — it's closest approach to us will be beyond Saturn's orbit — and (b) it's not technically the biggest. But it's still cool! Emily's here with loads of info about comets, big comets, things that are sort of comets, how many tails they have (hint: it's more than one), and heaps more besides.

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Syzygy is produced by Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

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Things we talk about in this episode:

·      The original paper, and the latest results

·      Article about Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein

·      Syzygy episode 50: Imposter Comet!

·      Syzygy episode 64: Almost a Good Comet

·      The Dark Energy Survey

·      Dirty snowballs

·      How many tails does a comet have?

·      The Oort Cloud

·      Famous comets: Halley, Hale-Bopp, Shoemaker-Levy 9

·      Centaurs