Comet C/2023 A3 ( Tsuchinshan - ATLAS ) is now bright andclearly visiblein the sky , with its beautiful derriere , and it is getting brighter . Stunning footage shows the comet spring up before sunrise and go in the direction of its tail – this made a fellow member of our squad remark that it looked like it was become “ backward ” , and we had to check it to them and say them that the comet was actually moving in that focusing . The tail is not always pointing away from the comet ’s direction of motion .
First of all , let ’s spill the beans about the video . The comet is moving at tens of kilometre per second but you are not actually seeing the motion of the comet . You are see the gesture of the Earth . The Earth is circumvolve quite tight , so objects in the east wage increase in a westward direction . But it does not mean that the comet is not also going that way of life .
Comets can have one or two tail , and they both depend on the Sun . Comets are icy and as they get close to the Sun those material sublimate – going from solid to gas – and form the comatoseness , the foggy atmosphere around the comet core group . It is then the action of the solar wind that creates the tails . Dust and gas unremarkably become the primary stern , the curve one , and the straighter one is the ion tail formed by glowing ionised natural gas .
The tails point off from the Sun – always . They are more or less different in direction because the ion stern is affected by magnetic fields , so signal at the streamline of the solar steer – the plasma released perpetually by the Sun . Comets go around the Sun in very eccentric orbital cavity so as they go up the Sun , the tail is behind them , like a Hollywood silver years Diva ’s scarf joint billowing in the wind as she drives a convertible .
But the interaction with the solar wind in place are only marginally affected by the speed you have around the Sun . The solar malarkey is fast , meaning as the comet actuate around the Sun , the quarter ’s direction also commute , from being behind to get going forward of the comet .
Comet Tsuchinshan - ATLAS went through its close transition with the Sun a few 24-hour interval ago , so the tail is now orient , roughly , in the same charge as it is moving . But , power by the solar jazz , the shadow is faster so it will delay forwards .
