Simulation of cometary magnetic tails

In order to simulate a cometary tail in a laboratory the flow of hydrogen collisionless supersonic plasma with the magnetic field frozen in was used. The wax ball served as a model of the cometary nucleus. The experimental conditions met the principle of limiting simulation. Field lines enveloped the nucleus at the day side and stretched along the flow at the night side. Tension of field lines in the magnetic tail provided the acceleration of ionized products of wax evaporation up to about 10⁶ cm s^–1. The control experiments showed that the magnetic tail is caused by currents due to the Lorentz electric field.