Author Topic: Comet McNaught  (Read 19901 times)

Offline Johno

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Comet McNaught
« on: January 20, 2007, 06:55:55 AM »
I stood out the front yard of my house, binoculars in hand.

The stars became visible, one by one.

Then, just when I thought it wasn't going to be visible that night, there it was.

Stone the crows, that thing's huge!!!!!!!

I refer, of course, to the Great Comet of 2007, Comet McNaught.

I was wondering if anyone has the background to tell me why the tail appears to curve?  Wouldn't the ejecta (is that what you call the material stripped off a comet?) fly directly away from the Sun?

Photos will be online when I figure the damn things out. :)

Offline Bob B.

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Re: Comet McNaught
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2007, 09:16:03 PM »
I was wondering if anyone has the background to tell me why the tail appears to curve?  Wouldn't the ejecta (is that what you call the material stripped off a comet?) fly directly away from the Sun?

A comet typically has two tails -- an ion tail and a dust tail.  The ion tail, which consists of ionized gases, is usually bluish in color and points directly away from the Sun.  The dust tail, which consists of dust particles from the comet, is illuminated by reflected sunlight and is usually curved.  The curvature is due to the combined effect of the comet's orbital motion and solar pressure pushing the dust outward from the Sun. 

Below is a photograph of comet Hale-Bopp (1997) that nicely shows both tails:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Comet_Hale-Bopp.jpg

Offline Ispaced

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Re: Comet McNaught
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2007, 09:05:59 AM »
« Last Edit: January 24, 2007, 09:28:16 AM by Ispaced »
Lets work on the impossible!