From photographs of comet Ikeia-Seki 1965 ^ it can be seen that near perihelion it had a tail curved along its orbit.

From photographs of comet Ikeia-Seki 1965 ^ it can be seen that near perihelion it had a tail curved along its orbit. Why was the effect of light pressure and solar wind on the tail shape not observed at this time, although their effect should have been maximum?

The comet of 1965 is one of the so-called “scratching” comets. It passed from the Sun at a distance less than its radius. Its speed at that time was very high – several hundred kilometers per second. The tail, apparently, simply did not have time to unfold under the influence of the solar wind and light pressure.