A comet twice the width of Rhode Island and traveling at 22,000 miles per hour is headed into the heart of our solar system, scheduled to hit its closest approach to the Sun in 2031, NBC News reports.
Comet C/2014 UN271, known as Bernardinelli–Bernstein, will travel about one billion miles away from the Sun when it hits its perihelion point in nine years, and it will keep well distant to Earth, so there is no danger to humankind. The comet will be about as distant to the Sun as Saturn at its perihelion.
The comet’s solid nucleus is about 85 miles wide and made up of ice, dirt and rock. It’s possible that a state-sponsored space agency or a private company could launch a mission for a rendezvous with the rock, but no such plans have been announced.