Comet Nishimura came into NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft's field of view. The solar wind was interacting with the tail of the comet in the footage. Credit: NASA/STEREO/Karl Battams | edited by Space.com's ...

A11pI3Z is only the third interstellar visitor to be discovered, and astronomers can’t say yet whether it is a comet or a ...

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) with a short third tail (to the left of the comet) and longer gas and dust tails (to the right of the comet) on Jan. 21.

T he "once-in-a-lifetime" comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS looks like it has grown a physics-defying second tail after reaching its closest point to Earth for more than 80,000 years, new photos reveal ...

A surprise coronal mass ejection recently smashed into Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, briefly causing the "devil comet" to lose its tail — and a NASA spacecraft caught the whole thing on camera.

C/2021 S3 PanSTARRS will safely pass by Earth this spring, and researchers are asking for help photographing the comet's journey to see if its tail has been detached by strong solar winds.

Comet ZTF, passing near Earth on February 1, has developed a strange anti-tail. Stock image of a comet passing close by Earth. As a comet is heated by the radiation from the sun (or any other star ...

The main tail of the comet can be seen extending for upwards of 10° away from the nucleus, wide, diffuse, and curving. But alongside it, narrow, straight, and faint, a second, ...

Mercury, the solar system's smallest planet, has a comet-like tail made predominantly of sodium ions, which are scattered from the planet's surface by solar wind and micro-meteor impacts.

Astronomers have discovered over 100 new alien worlds so far this year — some many light-years away from Earth — that ...

In short, a comet's tail is curved because the net force (light plus gravity) puts the dust into different orbits than the original comet. Vpython is your friend. I think my tl;dr was too long.

A comet that has been on an 81,000-year journey to fly by Earth is finally arriving -- and should be visible in our skies in the upcoming days. The space rock — named Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan ...