A Tale of Two Tails

I captured this close-up of Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) 3 days before its closest approach to Earth.

 

If you have asked yourself why Neowise had two tails, you might be interested in the following explanation:

 

The upper, blue tail is called the ion tail. It points directly away from the Sun and is pushed out by the charged solar wind, along the Sun's magnetic field. The structure in the ion tail comes from different rates at which light emitting ions are expelled from the comet's nucleus and the constantly changing nature of the solar wind.

 

The lower, white tail consists of dust and reflects the sunlight. The dust tail is pushed out by the Sun's radiation pressure and curves because heavier dust particles are better able to resist this light pressure and continue along a solar orbit. The origin of the wavy structure in the dust tail is not fully understood. Most likely, it is produced by rotating streams of light reflecting dust, expelled by ice melting on its 5-kilometer wide nucleus.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D

Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 L ll @ 200mm, f/4

Modified Skywatcher AZ-GTI mount

Stack of 106 x 30s @ ISO1600

Processed with PixInsight & Photoshop

Done