Plasma tails: Comets Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake

Comet Hale-Bopp was one of the largest comets ever recorded, and it exhibit ed both a massive dust tail and a plasma tail, which developed as it approa ched the sun over the course of six months in 1996-1997, Because the dust r esponds to gravity and light pressure, but plasmas also respond to the loca l solar wind (Coulomb collisions and magnetic fields), there is typically a n angular separation between the two tails, as seen in the photo above.