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Astronaut Photographs Comet Lovejoy ... From Space
astroengine writes "The sungrazing comet that survived the plunge deep into the solar corona, only to escape after swinging behind the sun last week, has posed for an extraordinary photograph. Space station commander Dan Burbank caught Comet Lovejoy and its impressive tail hanging above the Earth's horizon as it begins its long journey back into deep space."
You mean one for electrically charged stuff, and one for electrically neutral stuff, no? Sure, yea, that ends up mostly being ionized gas vs dust, but the reason there are two is because one is affected by the solar magnetic field in the guise of the solar wind, and one isn't.
Oh, okay, I used Google. We're both wrong. There are three tails, as shown in the figure here http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q2805.html --- one for ionized gas, one for neutral gas (hydrogen, apparently), and one for dust.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.