TITLE:
Giant Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) Provides New Evidence for Cometary Panspermia
AUTHORS:
N. Chandra Wickramasinghe
KEYWORDS:
Comets, Cometary Activity, Bacteria and Viruses, Panspermia
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics,
Vol.12 No.1,
February
11,
2022
ABSTRACT: The discovery of a giant comet (C/2014 UN271) at a distance of 29 AU in October 2014 and the later discovery in September 2021 of a dramatic brightening episode offers an ideal opportunity for verifying the predictions of a “biological” comet. The eruptions of the comet at a heliocentric distance of 20 AU are plausibly explained as due to high pressure venting of the products of microbial metabolism in radioactively heated subsurface lakes. The standard non-biological model of comets is woefully inadequate to account for eruptions at such large distances from the sun where surface temperatures are as low as 60 K.