Meteor shower and comets' tails

[agentgonzo]

Regular meteor showers are caused by the earth passing through the 'tail' of a comet in the same place every year. But How does this tail stay in the same place? I assume that it doesn't as it has to orbit the sun in some way (and also be affected by the solar wind). Is it just that the comet has a load of dust blown off it that continues in a slightly different orbit to the nucleus, so over the years you eventually get an ellipse of dust that's spread across the whole of the actual comet's orbit and we are just passing through different particles in that orbit? How are these not blown away by the solar wind?

This is something I've never properly understood.

 

[Codz]

Regular meteor showers are caused by the earth passing through the 'tail' of a comet in the same place every year. But How does this tail stay in the same place? I assume that it doesn't as it has to orbit the sun in some way (and also be affected by the solar wind). Is it just that the comet has a load of dust blown off it that continues in a slightly different orbit to the nucleus, so over the years you eventually get an ellipse of dust that's spread across the whole of the actual comet's orbit and we are just passing through different particles in that orbit? How are these not blown away by the solar wind?

This is something I've never properly understood.

Good question! The Earth isn't actually passing through the real tail of a comet. It is actually going through a cloud of debris left by a comet or asteroid that happens to be in the Earth's path of orbit.

 

[agentgonzo]

Good question! The Earth isn't actually passing through the real tail of a comet. It is actually going through a cloud of debris left by a comet or asteroid that happens to be in the Earth's path of orbit.

Yeah, that's why I put 'tail' in quotes. But still the question remains, is this cloud of debris spread out throughout the entire orbit of the comet and why doesn't it get blown away by the solar wind? The Leonids have been around for over 150 years and are in the same place/time every year.

 

[Codz]

Yeah, that's why I put 'tail' in quotes. But still the question remains, is this cloud of debris spread out throughout the entire orbit of the comet and why doesn't it get blown away by the solar wind? The Leonids have been around for over 150 years and are in the same place/time every year.

From the wiki entry on the subject. "When the ice warms and sublimates, the vapor can drag along dust, sand, and pebbles. Each time a comet swings by the Sun in its orbit, some of its ice vaporizes and a certain amount of meteoroids will be shed. The meteoroids spread out along the entire orbit of the comet to form a meteoroid stream, also known as a "dust trail" (as opposed to a comet's "dust tail" caused by the very small particles that are quickly blown away by solar radiation pressure)."

and

"Most of our short-period meteor showers are not from the normal water vapor drag of active comets, but the product of infrequent disintegrations, when large chunks break off a mostly dormant comet. Examples are the Quadrantids and Geminids, which originated from a breakup of asteroid-looking objects 2003 EH1 and 3200 Phaethon, respectively, about 500 and 1000 years ago. The fragments tend to fall apart quickly into dust, sand, and pebbles, and spread out along the orbit of the comet to form a dense meteoroid stream, which subsequently evolves into Earth's path."

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[RisingFury]

That doesn't answer his question. The question isn't how the dust cloud forms, but why it stays there.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Maybe because diffusing along the former comet's orbit path is easier for debris particles, because they tend to conserve energy, and only receive small accelerations that are most notable in orbit phasing changes?