Bright comet 1995 Q1

This image of Bright Comet 1995 Q1 shows the comet head (coma) and the intricate structure of the innermost part of the long, narrow tail that points towards SE, i.e. away from the Sun. This photo was made with an emulsion-filtre combination that registers blue light from the molecules and ions in the coma and tail. The appearance of the tail changes rapidly due to the strong influence of the solar wind at the comet's relatively close location to the Sun, about 75 million kilometres. This corresponds to half the distance between the Earth and the Sun.