Page 1 of 1
comet fragment
Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 4:05 pm
by postmarc
Concerning today's movie of the large fragment of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 as it passed the Earth, I always thought that the direction of a comet's tail was determined by solar winds. In today's movie the tail was directly behind the path of the comet. Is it just a chance that SW3 was heading directly toward the sun? Or did it just appear that way from a vantage point on Earth. I wonder if Hubble or any of the other space platforms got a look at SW3.
Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 5:56 pm
by Qev
Since the comet is currently heading sunward, the tail does seem to 'trail behind' in the path of the comet. Once it starts rounding the Sun (assuming it survives that long), you'll see the tail swing around to point the 'wrong' way.
Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 9:08 am
by harry
Hello
Qev if you get the image at that point in time, i'd like to see it
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Is it my computer or sometimes this sends two posts.