What creates the tail of a comet as it moves through space?

[charlatan]

A tail of vapour behind a moving object suggests that the object is moving through a medium, and the phenomenon can be explained in terms of drag factor. So what is creating the familiar tail of comets we see moving through space?

 

[Janus]

Originally posted by charlatan
A tail of vapour behind a moving object suggests that the object is moving through a medium, and the phenomenon can be explained in terms of drag factor. So what is creating the familiar tail of comets we see moving through space?

A combination of the Heat of the sun and the Solar wind. The Solar wind consists of particles thrown off by the sun. It is very, very thin,(Thinner than most earth-made vacuums). But so are the gasses boiling off the comet body. The tail always points away from the sun, So when the comet is on its outward leg and moving away from the sun, the tail points out in front of its path of movement.