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dust tail

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
dust tail [′dəst ‚tāl]
(astronomy)
A comet tail that consists of particles, typically 1 micrometer in diameter and primarily silicate in composition, and is usually curved with a length in the range from 106to 107kilometers.
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As a comet nears the sun, it typically sports two tails--a brilliant dust tail and a fainter ion tail.
Sunstruck: Solar hurricanes rip comet's tail by Cowen, Ron / Science News
It's also spouting geysers of gas, and its twin gas and dust tails stretch for some 30 million miles.
STARGAZERS SOUNDING ALARM OVER HALE-BOPP by Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
But some comets, like Hale-Bopp, also have a dust tail Because this trail of rock and dust reflects lots of sunlight, dust tails are highly visible.
A comet is coming ... again: a newly discovered comet may be the ... by Costello, Emily / Science World
 
 
 
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