Quote:
Originally Posted by P A N
they're not really that different. a gaseous body travelling through space should have a tail. there's sh*t coming out of it all the time. what is so different about that compared to a comet?
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A comet's tail isn't created by motion and doesn't necessarily trail behind it. A comet's tail is created by solar radiation bombarding the comet. Because of this, the tail always points away from the sun. This means that the tail would be behind the comet as it approaches the sun, next to the comet as it passes by the sun, and in front of the comet as it's moving away from the sun. The reason the sun doesn't have a tail is because there's no massive object millions of times its size nearby blasting radiation at it.
[Edit] Here's a diagram:
