Comments on: The two tails of Comet Garradd

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:44:04 +0000

Neat. I was hoping we’d see a perspective shot like this since the last time BA talked about comets having two tails. And it didn’t take long.

By: Las colas opuestas del cometa Garradd | Imagen astronomía diaria - Observatorio

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:22:35 +0000

[...] en direcciones casi opuestas. El cometa Garradd muestra actualmente colas opuestas debido al ángulo de visión desde la Tierra. Esta imagen , captada la semana pasada, muestra la cola de polvo ligeramente [...]

By: K. Nilsson

K. Nilsson — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 06:22:56 +0000

Wow… you were referenced in Today’s APOD. Great Job.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
For 28 Feb 2012

Way to go Phil !!!

look under the intermediate viewing angle. link

By: Bob S.

Bob S. — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:24:41 +0000

“He’s intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two-dimensional thinking.”
-Spock

Sorry, couldn’t resist…

By: C-Rash

C-Rash — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 11:52:22 +0000

For Zerodash-

“Comet Garradd…at Tanagra, arms wide”

By: Diederick

Diederick — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:03:37 +0000

“Aha! Oh, I love a chance to lecture a bit. ”

I know. That’s why I visit this site every day.

By: Daniel Fischer

Daniel Fischer — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:18:22 +0000

When you look at better images of comet Garradd, e.g. those by Ronaldo Ligustri to which I’m often linking in my blog, you see that the dust tail is actually a wide fan as many finer particles *are* blown away by solar radiation pressure – the graphic here is misleading. That – regular – dust tail can be seen, in the better images, lying underneath the plasma tail. So technically Garradd has three tails: a gas tail, a dust tail and what’s called an anti-tail.

By: Jan from Denmark

Jan from Denmark — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:39:00 +0000

A really cool example of : “It’s a matter of perspective”. It took me about 2 seconds from seeing the image till I had the “3D image”.

Very good shot.

By: Chris A.

Chris A. — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:46:12 +0000

I was under the impression that both tails (gas and dust) get swept away from the sun, but to differing degrees (the gas tail, mostly by the solar wind; and the dust tail, mostly by photon pressure). The fact that dust particles are a lot heavier than gas molecules, and photon pressure is pretty wimpy, is why the gas tail tends to be straight (the force pushing it away from the nucleus overwhelms the sun’s gravity) and dust tails tend to be curved (the dust particles follow slightly altered solar orbits, with gravity still playing a large role in their trajectories).

By: Zerodash

Zerodash — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:44:35 +0000

Comet Garradd…at Tanagra.