Science · 6 pages · 12 min
Why comets grow tails near the sun
Comet tails grow near the Sun when ice turns to gas and is swept outward.
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From the opening
A comet grows tails near the Sun because warmth turns ices in its nucleus into gas and frees dust, and sunlight and the solar wind then drive that material away. Far from the Sun the same body is a dark, quiet lump with no bright tail to speak of. The opening covers why ice wakes near the Sun, how dust tails differ from ion tails, and why the tail need not trail.
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Inside
- Why ice wakes near the Sun
- How dust tails differ from ion tails
- Why the tail need not trail
- What older comet dust becomes
- Where the idea stops applying
- A distinction worth keeping
Sources
- Sublimation of cometary ices near the Sun
- Dust tails and ion tails as separate structures