- Joined
- Feb 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,649
- Reaction score
- 4
- Points
- 38
- Location
- Hampshire, UK
- Website
- orbiter.quorg.org
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.
This is something I've never properly understood.