C/2022 E3 (ZTF), a comet that has recently made headlines as it flies closer to Earth, briefly developed an ethereal third tail thanks to a weird optical illusion.
A rare green comet, which has been streaking across the night sky as it approaches Earth for the first time since the Stone Age, briefly grew a bizarre third tail. This"anti-tail" appeared to streak in the wrong direction, seemingly breaking the rules of physics.
Normally, comets like this have two tails: one made from dust, which is blown off the comet by solar wind; and one made of gas from within the comet that sublimates, or transitions, directly from solid to gas. But on Jan. 21, several astrophotographers, including Ruslan Merzlyakov in Denmark and Alessandro Carrozzi in Italy, snapped pictures of the green comet with a third tail that was pointed towards the sun instead of away from it.
The released gas eventually cools and becomes invisible, but the leftover dust is left to drift in the wake of the comet's trajectory around the sun, or orbital plane. When Earth crosses through a comet's orbital plane, some of this dust is reilluminated by the sun and appears as a bright streak, which can appear to shoot out of the comet in the opposite direction to its other tails, depending on the comet's trajectory and orientation.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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