I agree on the heat, and I agree outgassing occurs, but almost invisibly. If outgassing were responsible for the tail, the tail would look like a corkscrew coming off of a spinning object as it does. Also, if outgassing were responsible for the tail, the tail would be following behind the comet, not away from the sun.
When outgassing occurs, in near orbit with the sun, the gasses, dust and ice crystal disburse in all dirctions. The concentration is higher nearer to the source and gets more dispersed as distance from the comet increases. The actual size of the gas and ice cloud around the comet is close to twice the length of the tail at its longest. The tail defines the radius of the gas cloud.
Under the traditional theory of the tail of a comet being the outgassing of debris the material that is spewed toward the sun is somehow decelerated and turned around to move at millions of miles per hour in the oposite direction. If solar wind is responsible for this (it can't be) why doesn't gas and ice crystals discharged by the space shuttle whisked away in the same fasion.
It simply can't be.
I wish you could experience Ice Fog. It makes it all so easily understood.
Space/Science » in reply to Re: Comet Tails
Re: Comet Tails