Solar winds snapped off Comet Lemmon’s ponytail this week and sent it reeling into space. Not to worry. Comets possess the remarkable ability, shared by many species of lizards, to grow new ones. A lizard loses its tail to distract and escape a predator; a comet because its charged atoms – called ions – interact with the breezy blasts of charged particles from the sun called the solar wind.
One day Comet Lemmon was minding its own business and then on Wednesday morning, one of its two tails underwent a “disconnection event”. Comets frequently grow two tails when they orbit near the sun – a pale yellow one of fine dust and a blue one of ionized (electrically charged) gas. The blue color comes from ionized carbon monoxide which fluoresces blue when excited by ultraviolet light from the sun. The larger particles in a comet’s dust tail have no electric charge and aren’t affected by the solar wind; they get pushed away from the comet’s head by the pressure of sunlight.
Charged particles from the sun – electrons and protons – plow through the solar system and continuously interact with comets creating picturesque kinks and ripples in their ion tails. Wrapped up into this electrical mix are solar magnetic fields with north and south-directly poles similar to those on a horseshoe magnet.
Electricity and magnetism go hand in hand. A spinning magnet creates an electrical field and an electric current creates a magnetic field. Every time you turn on a lamp, the wires inside the cord are looped by invisible but very real magnetic fields.
Solar flare eruptions like the powerful X-class flares earlier this week can direct huge clouds of magnetized (and electrified) clouds of gas called coronal mass ejections or CMEs into space. When one smacks into a comet, it can rip its tail right off.
Comets present obstacles to the solar wind. The magnetic field carried by the sun’s constant wind gets pushed back by the comet’s electrified gases causing it to drape and flow around the comet’s head. That’s what forms the streamlined blue ion tail in the first place. But when an especially powerful blast of wind blows by, it can elbow its way around the backside of the comet and reconnect with itself, releasing a burst of energy that snaps off the tail.
In a very real sense, Comet Lemmon experienced a space weather event much like what happens when a powerful solar wind reconnects streams around Earth’s magnetic field and reconnects on the back or nightside of the planet. The energy released sends zillions of electrons and protons screaming down into our upper atmosphere where they stimulate the air molecules to produce auroras. One wonders whether comets might even have their own brief displays of northern lights.
It’s unclear what pinched Lemmon’s tail since all four large flares from sunspot group 1748 and their associated CMEs weren’t directed at Comet Lemmon.
Maybe the comet crossed a sector boundary where the magnetic field carried across the solar system by sun’s steady breeze changed direction from south to north or north to south. When it sped across the older field wrapped around Lemmon, the two once may have linked up in a burst of energy.
When a lizard loses its tail, it may gain its life, but still suffer for the trouble. For a time, its sense of balance is compromised and important fat reserves stored in the tail aren’t available. Comet Lemmon will be no worse for the wear. As soon as the old tail drifts away, a new one sprouts in its place, cooked up by the ever-steady sun.