A Wonderleaf question
Why do comets have tails?
a real page from the book
Comets get tails when they travel close enough to the Sun for their frozen ices to turn into gas. That escaping gas lifts dust from the surface, making a cloud around the comet. Sunlight and the solar wind then push that gas and dust outward, forming tails that point away from the Sun.
A comet can have two tails at once: one made of glowing gas and one made of dusty grains reflecting sunlight. That means the tail does not simply trail the path of travel. On the way back out from the Sun, a comet can move with its tail ahead of it.
Wonder words
- comet
- coma
- photons
- methane
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In a dim room, shine a flashlight across the air and watch tiny dust specks appear in the beam.
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