The Longest Tail Of A Comet Was Of The Comet Hyakutake, And Was 3.3 AU Long

Fact of the day: The longest tail of a comet was of the comet Hyakutake, and was 3.3 astronomical units long.


(above) A Comet from NASA.

Comets are small balls of ice and rock, originating in the Oort Cloud and Kuiper belt, and have orbital periods that can range from tens of years to thousands of years.

Comets have a very distinctive tail that is caused by the vaporisation of the nucleus of the comet. Comets are always seen with their tail pointing away from the sun, even when the comet is moving away from the sun, as the comets vaporisation is caused by the energy radiating from the sun.
Comets have more than one tail, but the one that is the most visible is the tail of gas, and that is always pointing directly away from the sun as it is affected by the solar wind are than the other tails.
The other tails are of dust, which are usually curved, and are less visible than the gas tails.

Most comets have regular orbits, such as Halley's Comet, which returns to the Earth every 75-76 years.

It is hypothesised that comets have been key in the development of life on our planet. As well as water being expelled by the mantle, the bombardment of ice rich comets in the early formation of our planet has contributed greatly to the volume of water on our planet.

One of the most significant events in the exploration of comets was part of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. The lander Philae landed successfully on comet 67p in August 2014.
The Rosetta mission was launched in 2004 (from Earth).

(below) An image taken by Philae of the comets surface, from NASA.









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