- #1
ManDay
- 159
- 1
Did you know...
...that a comet's tail doesn't indicate the direction in which the comet is flying?
I didn't, but having come across "Deep Impact" on TV yesterday made me wonder how a comet could have a tail formed from its coma when there is no friction to extend the dust to such a tail. And assuming that I understood Wikipedia (where I looked it up) correctly, the tail is caused solely by "solar forces", so to say, and extends away from the sun, which is not necessarily the direction in which the comet is heading.
So, did you know?
(feel free to post other things of that kind)
...that a comet's tail doesn't indicate the direction in which the comet is flying?
I didn't, but having come across "Deep Impact" on TV yesterday made me wonder how a comet could have a tail formed from its coma when there is no friction to extend the dust to such a tail. And assuming that I understood Wikipedia (where I looked it up) correctly, the tail is caused solely by "solar forces", so to say, and extends away from the sun, which is not necessarily the direction in which the comet is heading.
So, did you know?
(feel free to post other things of that kind)