Loading...

Glossarbegriffe: Kometenschweif

Also known as Schweif

Description: Wenn sich ein Komet in der Nähe der Sonne befindet, erhitzt die Sonnenstrahlung die Oberfläche des Kometen. Das Eis auf der Oberfläche wird zu Gas (es "sublimiert") und nimmt dabei winzige Gesteins- und Staubteilchen mit. Die daraus resultierende Mischung bildet eine Wolke um den Kometenkern, die Koma genannt wird.

Üblicherweise hat ein Komet zwei Schweife: Die ausgestoßenen Staubteilchen bilden den Staubschweif des Kometen, der eine charakteristisch gekrümmte Form hat. Er besteht aus Staubteilchen, die von der Oberfläche freigesetzt werden und dem Kometen auf seiner Umlaufbahn um die Sonne folgen. Staubschweife können Millionen von Kilometern oder mehr lang sein. Sie reflektieren das Sonnenlicht. Unter den richtigen Bedingungen ist es größtenteils ihre weißliche, verschwommene Form, die man beobachten kann, wenn ein Komet mit bloßem Auge sichtbar ist. Ein erheblicher Teil des Gases wird vom Sonnenwind - den elektrisch geladenen Teilchen, die von der Sonne ausgestoßen werden - weggeblasen und ionisiert. Diese Ionen bilden den Ionenschweif des Kometen, der normalerweise eine bläuliche Farbe hat. Der Ionenschweif zeigt immer geradeaus von der Sonne weg. Wenn sich der Komet selbst von der Sonne wegbewegt, eilt der Ionenschweif dem Kometen voraus.

Zugehörige Glossarbegriffe:



See this term in other languages

Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

Zugehörige Medien


A comet with two tails, one is yellowish and gradually spreading away from the nucleus, the other is blue and compact

Comet C/2020F3 (Neowise) with separate dust and ion gas tails and a green glowing coma, by Dietmar Gutermuth, Germany

Bildunterschriften: Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Comets. Comets have a very interesting structure comprising of four main parts: the nucleus, composed of rock, dust and frozen gases, typically spanning a few kilometres, although bigger ones have been observed; a small atmosphere of gas surrounding the nucleus (only present when the comet approaches its closest point to the Sun), called coma; and the two distinctive cometary tails (there is at times third tail). The green colour of the coma is due to carbon and nitrogen present in the coma reacting with the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. The tail that we are mostly used to observing – dust tail and is composed of micron sized dust particles, the second tail composed of charged particles – ion or gas tail. The tails are released only when the comet approaches the Sun at a distance where the heat and radiation emanating from our star is intense enough to vaporize the frozen gases. The dust tail is curved, while the gas tail is straight and always points away from the Sun as this is carried by the solar wind - flow of charged particles emitted by the Sun. As comets are formed by leftover material, they carry with them important information about the early stages of the Solar System’s formation. This beautiful image shows the comet C/2020 F3 (Neowise), as seen from Germany in July 2020, with three of the four structures clearly visible – coma, gas, and dust tail.
Bildnachweis: Dietmar Gutermuth/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons


A woman in silhouette appears to greet a comet that appears behind bands of light cloud

Hello Comet, shall we dance?, by Robert Barsa, Slovakia

Bildunterschriften: Third place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Comets. This beautiful and poetic image taken from Slovakia in July 2020 captures the comet C/2020 F3 (Neowise). The direction of the tails of the comet provides a clue as to the position of the Sun. In the past, the appearance of a comet in the skies could be accompanied by apprehension and even fear from those who did not know what these objects really are. Through careful observations and the applications of knowledge from physics, chemistry and geology, we now understand that comets are objects left over from the earliest days when the Solar System formed. The most distinctive features of a comet are the bluish ion (gas) tail, and whitish dust tail, which can extend for tens of millions of kilometres. These distinctive features, easily observable with the unaided eye together with an understanding of the science, are no longer cause for fear, rather they help us understand the history of our Solar System, and bring awe, joy and contemplation, as portrayed in this image.
Bildnachweis: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons


Image of a typical comet with a wide white tail and a second blue tail tilted 30 degrees counter-clockwise to the white tail.

Comet Hale-Bopp

Bildunterschriften: Image of comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp), taken on 4 April 1997, with an exposure time of 10 minutes. The field shown is about 6.5°x6.5°. Two tails extend from the bright coma: one white-yellowish dust tail and a bluish gas tail, always pointing away from the Sun.
Bildnachweis: E. Kolmhofer, H. Raab; Johannes-Kepler-Observatory, Linz, Austria credit link

License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Unported icons

The Office of Astronomy for Education is hosted by the Haus der Astronomie on the campus of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg. The Office of Astronomy for Education is an office of the International Astronomical Union, with substantial funding from the Klaus Tschira Foundation and the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The Shaw-IAU Workshops on Astronomy for Education
are funded by the Shaw Prize Foundation.