Delta4Embassy
Gold Member
SpaceWeather.com -- News and information about meteor showers, solar flares, auroras, and near-Earth asteroids
"DAWN COMET HAS TWO TAILS: Now that the morning Moon is waning in brightness, amateur astronomers are once again getting a good view of Comet Catalina. Images reveal not one, but two tails. Randy Carter sends this picture from Elkin, North Carolina, taken Dec. 4th:
Why does Comet Catalina have two tails? Almost all comets do. The sun-warmed nucleus of a comet spews a mixture of dust and gas into space. Quickly, the mixture separates into two distinct tails: The gaseous "ion tail" is pushed straight away from the sun by solar wind. The weightier dust tail resists solar wind pressure and aligns itself more or less with the comet's orbit. In Carter's picture of Comet Catalina, the ion tail points up; the dust tail points down."
Interesting. rest at link
"DAWN COMET HAS TWO TAILS: Now that the morning Moon is waning in brightness, amateur astronomers are once again getting a good view of Comet Catalina. Images reveal not one, but two tails. Randy Carter sends this picture from Elkin, North Carolina, taken Dec. 4th:
Why does Comet Catalina have two tails? Almost all comets do. The sun-warmed nucleus of a comet spews a mixture of dust and gas into space. Quickly, the mixture separates into two distinct tails: The gaseous "ion tail" is pushed straight away from the sun by solar wind. The weightier dust tail resists solar wind pressure and aligns itself more or less with the comet's orbit. In Carter's picture of Comet Catalina, the ion tail points up; the dust tail points down."
Interesting. rest at link
