Mount Kilimanjaro-sized Comet Possibly From Another Solar System Survives After Making Closest Approach to the Sun

A huge comet made its closest approach to the Sun and didn't get burned.

A Massive Comet Approached The Sun

A space rock believed to be something outside our solar system made its way towards the Sun. The giant comet identified as 96P/Machholz 1 is 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) wide or about the same size as Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa.

It was first spotted in 1986 using a homemade cardboard telescope. Nearly four decades later, it made its closest approach to the Sun Tuesday, Daily Mail reported.

Experts believed it might have been sent into a peculiar orbit after being ejected from its original solar system. After several years, they speculated that its trajectory bent following a run-in with Jupiter, which was why it was entangled around the Sun.

European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has been monitoring the comet as it made its perihelion in 1996, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017.

Karl Battams, an astrophysicist at the Naval Research Lab in Washington DC, told spaceweather.com that comet 96P is not the typical space rock, so they do not have any idea of what they will see while watching over it.

The comet is expected to make another close approach to the Sun in the next five years. It will be three times closer to the Sun than Mercury.

The outlet noted that among the things that made the comet survive was its massive size. It has already passed the star five times before this year's perihelion and stands strong.

Comet 96P Survives Closest Approach To The Sun

Most comets are about the size of a house, and when they get near the Sun, they end up in vapor. However, Comet 96P/Machholz is huge, that's why it didn't suffer the same fate as the smaller space rocks.

Battams gave an update after comet 96P's perihelion on Twitter. According to him, the space rock looked great after its close approach to our star.

Battmas, following 96P, shared a clip of the comet's journey toward the Sun in another tweet. According to him, there was a noticeable fragment several hours ahead of the comet's perihelion.

He wasn't sure if it was a known fragment or a new one, noting that 96P is one of the weirdest comets in terms of composition and behavior in the solar system. They even believe that it originated from another solar system.

Comet 96P/Machholz 1 Has Also Made Several Approaches Towards The Earth

According to Cometography, the comet made two close approaches to our planet in the last half of the 20th century and one close approach to Jupiter during the first half of the 21st century.

It is considered a Near Earth Asteroid due to its orbit's proximity to Earth. However, it is not considered potentially hazardous because computer simulations don't see any imminent likelihood of a future collision.

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