Commets and solar wind?
Question:
its said that the tail would travel in the opposite direction.
plz explain
Answer:
The tail of a comet is always blown away by the solar wind. So as the comet nears the sun, the tail trails it. When the comet is at the closest to the sun, the tail is at a right angle to the direction of travel, still pointing away from the sun, and after the closest encounter, as the comet moves away from the sun, the solar wind pushes the tail beyond the comet, so the tail is *ahead* of the comet head.
Solar wind "blows" the tail of the comet in a direction directly away from the sun.
The wind dosn't effect all the particles that make up the tail, these particles will simply drag along behind the comet, making another tail that points directly opposite the direction of travel.
So comets are often observed to have TWO tails, one pointing away from the sun, and one pointing opposite the direction of travel.
because solar winds irradiate away from the sun and there fore will blow the tail away from the sun
The solar winds are always coming from the sun ,so the tail always points away from the sun.
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