What makes a comets tail point away from the sun?
The word “comet” was coined from older words meaning “long hair.” The showy visitors reminded ancient astronomers of long golden tresses trailing in the wind. Modern astronomers do not agree about the golden hair. But they do agree that the long streamers are blown by stiff cosmic breezes. A comet’s brief glory is borrowed from the sun. Out in space it is a cold, dark object traveling around an immense orbit. If is happens to be a comet that visits our skies, it begins to glow near the orbit of Jupiter. And glowing materials can be identified by spectra analysis. Astronomers know its major ingredients and they also know something of the stupendous outpouring of solar radiation. They can estimate what most likely happens to the comet as it sweeps in its U turn close around the sun. But at present, the experts are not certain of all the details of the tail’s formation. The factors involved are.the pushing force of solar radiation and its effect on the ingredients in the speeding comet. A
