SOLAR SYSTEM

Detailed explanation-1: -The gas (water vapor, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and traces of other substances) and dust forms an “atmosphere” around the nucleus called a “coma .” Material from the coma gets swept into the tail.

Detailed explanation-2: -The ion tail is made up of ions (surprise!)-mostly CO+, N2+, CO2+. As the comet comes into the inner solar system, the Sun’s radiation heats up the nucleus, “boiling off” and ionizing these gases.

Detailed explanation-3: -Coma. As a comet gets closer to the sun, the ice on the surface of the nucleus begins turning into a gas via a process called sublimation, forming a cloud around the comet known as the coma.

Detailed explanation-4: -Alternatively known as the ‘ion tail’ or ‘plasma tail’, the gas tail of a comet generally starts to form somewhere around the orbit of Mars. Here, the Sun begins to heat the nucleus of the comet releasing gas and dust into a temporary atmosphere called the coma.

Detailed explanation-5: -Ultraviolet light ionizes the neutral gas blown off the comet, and the solar wind carries these ions straight out from the Sun to form the ion tail, which typically glows blue.