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The tail of a comet is formed by ice and dust that is blown off by solar winds from the nearest star. That is why the tail will always point away from the star no matter what direction the comet is traveling.

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13y ago
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14y ago

Although the common perception is that the tail of a comet streams out behind the comet, like dust being left behind as the comet roars through space; in reality, the tail of the comet is really the solar wind blowing the debris off of the comet. Because solar wind is coming from the direction of the sun, a comet's tail always faces away from the sun and is not necessarily "flowing" behind the comet.

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12y ago

the formation of comets tails are made by particles or the comet that flack off and go behind it and as they go behind it they turn to dust that's all the comets tail is.

A Comet tail and coma are illuminated by the Sun and may become visible from Earth when a comet passes through the inner solar system, the dust reflecting sunlight directly and the gases glowing from ionisation. Most comets are too faint to be visible without the aid of a telescope, but a few each decade become bright enough to be visible to the naked eye.

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12y ago

Dust and ionised gases boiled or stripped off the core of the comet by the suns thermal heating of the core.

These ejected materials are then pushed away from the core (and the Sun) by the solar wind (slowed down or speed up depending weather the comet is approaching or leaving the sun) while the heavy core maintains a constant speed.

This results in a gradual separation of the ejected material form the core forming a tail to the comet (which always points away form the sun).

The variation in mass between the dust and ionised gasses means that the two can be separated by the solar wind (like a chromatography separation) giving the comet two tails (of different colours).

Obviously the material in the tail reflects sunlight which is why we can see it.

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Q: What causes the formation of comets tail?
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