2003 EL61: Greatest Comet Ever!, In 2 Million Years Options

[SigurRosFan]

The Kuiper Belt Object 2003 EL61 (nicknamed 'Santa') may become the greatest comet ever!

The eighth planet's gravitational force could either sling the icy rock ball into the inner Solar System as a comet, out into the distant Oort Cloud region, or even into interstellar space.

Professor Mike Brown has calculated that the object could be due a close encounter with the planet Neptune. If so, Neptune's gravity could catapult it into the inner Solar System as a short-period comet.

"If you came back in two million years, EL61 could well be a comet," said Professor Brown, from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena.

"When it becomes a comet, it will be the brightest we will ever see."

The nucleus of Hale-Bopp, the largest comet in centuries, was about 40 km in diameter. The nucleus of comet 'Santa' is 50 times bigger.

- Dwarf planet 'becoming a comet'