Comets that big have the potential to make extremely bright apparitions, like Comet C\/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), which put on a fantastic display in 1997, or Comet C\/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), which gave a very fine display in 2020.<\/p>\n 2014 UN271 is heading towards us, but will take quite a few years, reaching its closest to The Sun (Perihelion) in January 2031. Unfortunately, this is never going to give us a great show, as even at its closest, the comet is not going to get any nearer to The Sun than the planet Saturn.<\/p>\n As a result, it will not be close enough to The Sun to be heated properly to make it very active for it to produce a lot of gas and dust and a large coma. It will be extremely interesting to see how it behaves, being a brand new Oort Cloud comet, but you can ditch any idea of seeing a real spectacle.<\/p>\n From an amateurs point of view, it is only going to appear as a faint smudge of light at its very best. It will only be visible in large telescopes and revealed using deep long exposure photographs.<\/p>\n UPDATE 1st October 2021 UPDATE 7th July 2021 Perhaps they should send the proposed Comet Interceptor from ESA to get a better look at it? Unfortunately, even the Comet Interceptor will not be able to explore this celestial visitor for two reasons. Plus it would take a number of years for a probe like this to match the comets motion in space, to keep up with it.![\"Selfie-C2020F3NEOWISE-20200712-Z75_5243-Web\"](\"https:\/\/www.star-gazing.co.uk\/WebPage\/wp-content\/uploads\/Selfie-C2020F3NEOWISE-20200712-Z75_5243-Web-681x1024.png\")
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\nThis has caused many stories to come out about us seeing a fantastic comet at that time.
\nWhy there has been a sudden flood of interest, I do not know.
\nWe have known about this object and its orbit since 2014.<\/p>\n
\nPlus being such a long way from Earth, this will reduce its apparent brightness even further.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/span>Current thinking is that it won’t even get as bright as Pluto as seen from Earth, possibly around 17th magnitude.<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/span>Some reports suggest that the comet may not be as big as first thought, as it may have a large coma already which is making it look bigger than the solid nucleus.
\n<\/strong><\/span>That’s what I love about comets, they always throw surprises.
\nSo I will be following this story as it develops.<\/p>\n
\nThis comet probe is due for launch a few years before in 2029.
\nhttps:\/\/www.esa.int\/Science_Exploration\/Space_Science\/ESA_s_new_mission_to_intercept_a_comet<\/a><\/p>\n
\nThis cometary probe will be using solar panels to power it.
\nAt the nearest distance of the comet, these panels will not supply enough power to keep it going as it will be too far from The Sun.<\/p>\n
\nWe saw this with the Rosetta comet probe a number of years ago, which took over a decade to reach Comet 67P.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/5\/5e\/2014_UN271.jpg\")
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