Comet caught strangely zigzagging its way through space
https://mashable.com/article/comet-2024-photograph-zigzagging-tail
"This is the first time we've been able to witness this creature's behavior with modern day technology," Bartlett told Mashable. "And what a creature this comet has been."
Comet experts say while the sharp kink in Olbers' tail may look strange to the average eye, the cause of its jagged appearance is a well-understood phenomenon.
Comets are enormous balls of ice, dust, and rock that formed in the outer solar system, left over from the early days of planet formation about 4.6 billion years ago, according to NASA. Their ice starts to disintegrate as they get closer to the sun, converting instantly from a solid to a gas, skipping over the liquid phase. That process creates their signature tails, millions-of-miles-long trails of debris.
And apparently, it's different every night? How cool!
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If you've got a tail, you should be able to wag it, I say.
"Hundreds of years ago, people considered comets bad omens. Today, scientists know these icy bodies as time capsules of the ancient solar system. Some astronomers believe comets brought water and organic compounds — aka the building blocks of life — to early Earth.....
Along with their trails of dust, comets also drag plasma, sometimes bluish in color, across the sky. The plasma tail, which looks a bit like Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar in Bartlett's photo, is composed of ionized gas molecules. These charged particles are easily influenced by changes in the sun's activity, said Henry Hsieh, a Planetary Science Institute researcher."
Interesting coincidence that I'm watching John Williams conduct his music from Harry Potter in Berlin on PBS!!
