[embed]https://youtu.be/2WQGyAUUvMs[/embed] It turns out that the sun’s magnetic field can shape and push the dust of a comet’s tail, according to a revelation made possible by one young scientist’s innovative new image-processing technique.
In 2007, scientists were elated when NASA’s STEREO spacecraft laid its “eyes” on Comet C/2006 P1, also known as Comet McNaught — named after astronomer Robert McNaught, who discovered the comet a year prior. Comet McNaught, which is part of a group called “the Great Comets,” was one of the brightest comets visible from Earth within the past 50 years. And scientists were lucky because, when STEREO, made up of twin satellites, was turned on, Comet McNaught passed right in front of it, creating a wealth of incredible data and images. Scientists found that the comet’s structured tail had distinct bands of dust stretching over 100 million miles behind it. But how exactly this tail was broken ...
