I suspect this is an old post that has been updated – or reinvigorated for unknown reasons. At https://dailygalaxy.com/2026/09/icy-object-turns-into-comet/ … Clube and Napier were telling us centaurs were comets over 30 years ago. Seems like mainstream paid no attention. Scientists, we are told, have detected changes around a distant icy object, namely, a centaur. These bodies orbit between Jupiter and Neptune – and this one seems to have woken up and has developed a cloud of gas and dust, as in a coma. It is assumed it is because its orbit had moved closer to the Sun rather than being buffeted by the solar wind in what has recently be an active period on the face of the Sun. Some big CMEs have missed the Earth but have blown lots of energy outwards into the solar system. Why not beyond Jupiter? As the current solar cycle is in the process of slowing down it will be interesting to see if the coma becomes a whisker – or reverts to nothing to see here.
Apparently, astronomers suspect that centaurs, when pushed into the inner solar system, moving past Jupiter, the gatekeeper, they eventually become Jupiter family comets. As such, they develop orbital periods of 20 years or less. This is at the heart of the Clube and Napier theory – a centaur object entered the inner solar system and adopted a short period orbit that lit up the sky in the Holocene period. Perhaps they have been paying attention. However, as far as this centaur is concerned, it is not going to do the same thing any time soon. It may do at a future date, probably a long time in the future, but there is no chance this centaur will do anything so dramatic. It is held back by Jupiter. The coma has been analysed and it contains carbon dioxide. Not unusual for a comet but its water content is said to be crystalline in nature. There is currently no evidence of water vapour. The author suggests the icy centaur is too far from the Sun for water ice sublimation. No doubt astronomers will be keeping an eye on the object over the next few years.