Optical photograph of Comet Ikeya-Seki,taken on 29 October,1965. A comet is a body of ice and dust,which moves around the Sun on a long,elliptical orbit. As it nears the Sun its surface is heated and some of the ice evaporates. The released gas is ionized by ultraviolet light from the Sun & begins to glow. The gas & dust can form two separate tails; a gas tail and a dust tail. A gas tail consists of ionised gas,swept outwards by the solar wind,whereas a dust tail is composed of grains of dust,blown outwards by solar radiation pressure | |
Licence : | Droits gérés |
Crédit: | Science Photo Library |
Taille de l’image : | 3350 px × 4257 px |
Model Release : | Non requis |
Property Release : | Non requis |
Restrictions : | - |