As comets approach the inner solar system, the ices within them evaporate and throw off gas and particles into space. These are pushed away from the comet by the solar wind.
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Diagram of a comet showing the dust trail, the dust tail (or antitail) and the ion gas tail, which is formed by the solar wind flow.
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A comet's orbit showing the different directions of the gas and dust tails as the comet passes the Sun. In the outer Solar System, comets remain frozen and are extremely difficult or impossible to detect from Earth due to their small size.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail
Comet Hale Bopp showing its two tails Courtesy of NASA. Comet Hale Bopp showing its two tails Courtesy of NASA. The ion tail T he ion tail is formed because the neutral gas, initially present in the cometary comae, is ionized by the solar radiation, giving birth to ions. These ions are susceptible to magnetic solar forces and are therefore swept out of the coma into a long, characteristic ion tail.
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1) Largest planet 2) Four major moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) 3) Red eye spot is the huge storm 4) Made from Hydrogen and Helium.
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In fact, the solar wind that sweeps past the comet has a very high speed (about 500 km/s) and causes the ion tail to be always orientated exactly in the anti-solar direction. The dust tail T he dust tail consists of dust particles that have been pushed out of the coma by the radiation from the Sun.
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The Tails T here are two main types of cometary tails: the ion and dust tail. Both the ion and the dust tails can reach great lengths, up to about one Astronomical Unit (AU) in the most spectacular cases.
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Comet's tail. Made of dust and gas ejected when the nucleus is made. When a comet is warmed by the sun so that some of the ice becomes a gas.The solar wind pushes the tail away from the sun, the tail therefore is always being blown away from the sun no matter what position the comet is in with respect to the sun.
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This leads to a tail disconnection event. This has been observed on a number of occasions, notable among which was on the 20th. April 2007 when the ion tail of comet Encke was completely severed as the comet passed through a coronal mass ejection. This event was observed by the STEREO spacecraft.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail
Comet Holmes (17P/Holmes) in 2007 showing blue ion tail on right. Comet Lovejoy from orbit. A comet tail —and coma —are features visible in comets when they are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible from Earth when a comet passes through the inner Solar System.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_tail
what direction does the tail of a comet point
The tail of a comet is always being blown away from the sun no matter what position the comet is in with respect to the sun. The tail of a comet point is always being blown away from the sun no matter what position the comet is in with respect to the sun.