http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?opti...=1741&Itemid=2
Quote:
Ulysses encountered McNaught’s tail of ionized gas at a distance downstream of the comet’s nucleus more than 1.5 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This is far beyond the spectacular dust tail that was visible from Earth in 2007.
Dr Jones said, “It’s very difficult to observe Comet McNaught’s plasma tail in comparison with the dust tail, so we can’t really estimate how long it might be. What we can say is that Ulysses took just 2.5 days to traverse the shocked solar wind surrounding Comet Hyakutake, compared to an incredible 18 days in shocked wind surrounding Comet McNaught. This shows that the comet was not only spectacular from the ground; it was a truly immense obstacle to the solar wind.”
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even the solar wind was shocked
