Knowra Comet tail Comet tail A stream of gas or dust extending from a comet, shaped by sunlight and the solar wind. It points generally away from the Sun, not necessarily behind the comet’s direction of travel.
Comet nucleus : The solid central body of a comet, made mainly of ice, dust, and rocky material. Its surface supplies the gas and dust that form the tail.
Dust tail : A comet tail made of solid dust grains, typically curved by solar radiation pressure and the comet’s motion. It is the dust component, distinct from the straighter ion tail.
Comet McNaught : A bright comet visible from Earth in 2007, noted for its prominent dust tail. Its sweeping, fan-shaped tail made dust-tail structure especially conspicuous.
Antitail : An apparent projection from a comet toward the Sun, produced by viewing geometry rather than a tail pointing sunward. It can look like a tail violating the usual direction, but is a perspective effect.
Coma (cometary) : The cloud of gas and dust surrounding a comet’s nucleus when solar heating makes it active. Material escaping this cloud is shaped into the comet’s tails.
Cometary dust : Small solid particles released from a comet’s nucleus as it becomes active near the Sun. Its grain sizes and release speeds determine the dust tail’s appearance.
Comet Hale–Bopp : A bright long-period comet that was visible to the naked eye in 1997. Its distinct dust and ion tails provided a clear example of the two components.
Cometary bow shock : A shock region formed where the solar wind encounters gas flowing outward from a comet. It is a solar-wind interaction near the comet, not the visible tail itself.
Solar radiation pressure : The force exerted when sunlight transfers momentum to matter. It pushes fine dust grains away from the Sun, forming the curved dust tail.
Cometary gas : Volatile molecules released from a comet’s nucleus, often altered or ionized by sunlight. Gas escaping the nucleus supplies the material that glows in the ion tail.
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