This image may not be used to state or imply NOAO endorsement of any company or product False-colour optical image of Comet West, taken on 8 March 197

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This image may not be used to state or imply NOAO endorsement of any company or product False-colour optical image of Comet West, taken on 8 March 1976, showing the comet's twin tails; a broad, fan-shaped dust tail & a thin, structured gas tail. A comet's nucleus is a body of ice and dust moving on a long, elliptical orbit around the Sun. As it nears the Sun its surface is heated and some of the ice evaporates to form a coma, a glowing halo of ionised gas surrounding the nucleus. Ionised gas is also drawn outwards by the solar wind, forming the plasma tail. The released dust sometimes forms a second tail, pushed outwards by radiation pressure.

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Size: 2925px × 2942px
Photo credit: © NOAO/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: astronomy, comet, cometary, cosmology, dust, false-coloured, gas, science, tail, west