Coma (cometary)

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The comet Ikeya-Zhang exhibiting a bright, condensed coma (March 2002)

In astronomy, the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet is called its coma (from the Latin word for "hair"). It is formed when the comet passes close to the sun on its highly elliptical orbit; as the comet warms, parts of it melt and/or vaporize. The coma is generally made of ice and dust. Larger dust particles are left along the comet's orbital path while smaller particles are pushed away from the Sun into the comet's tail by light pressure [1].

This gives a comet a "fuzzy" appearance when viewed in telescopes and distinguishes it from stars.

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