Ice on Fire

Original image copyright: Stéphane Guisard
Modified Formatting for aesthetic presentation

Comets aren't really on-fire...the long tails we see are vaporizing ICES and DUST PARTICLES of various compositions, fluorescent from excitation by solar radiation...

That's why we don't see comets--without good equipment--until they get relatively close to the sun, and why photos of comets taken from earth are often taken in the early morning (just before sunrise) or just after sunset, when the brilliance of the sun itself is BELOW the horizon.

Seen here is Comet McNaught, from one of several photos taken in January 2007 (one year ago).