The heliotail is the tail of the heliosphere, and thus the Solar System's tail.
It can be compared to the tail of a comet (however, a comet's tail does not stretch behind it as it moves; it is always pointing away from the Sun).
The tail is a region where the Sun's solar wind slows down and ultimately escapes the heliosphere, slowly evaporating because of charge exchange.

The shape of the heliotail (newly found by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer – IBEX), is that of a four-leaf clover.
The particles in the tail do not shine, therefore it cannot be seen with conventional optical instruments.
IBEX made the first observations of the heliotail by measuring the energy of "energetic neutral atoms", neutral particles created by collisions in the Solar System's boundary zone.

The tail has been shown to contain fast and slow particles; the slow particles are on the side and the fast particles are encompassed in the center.
The shape of the tail can be linked to the sun sending out fast solar winds near its poles and slow solar wind near its equator more recently.
The clover-shaped tail moves further away from the sun, which makes the charged particles begin to morph into a new orientation.

Cassini and IBEX data challenged the "heliotail" theory in 2009.
In July 2013, IBEX results revealed a 4-lobed tail on the Solar System's heliosphere.
The heliotail is the tail of the heliosphere, and thus the Solar System's tail. It can be compared to the tail of a comet (however, a comet's tail does not stretch behind it as it moves; it is always pointing away from the Sun). The tail is a region where the Sun's solar wind slows down and ultimately escapes the heliosphere, slowly evaporating because of charge exchange.
The shape of the heliotail (newly found by NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer – IBEX), is that of a four-leaf clover. The particles in the tail do not shine, therefore it cannot be seen with conventional optical instruments. IBEX made the first observations of the heliotail by measuring the energy of "energetic neutral atoms", neutral particles created by collisions in the Solar System's boundary zone.
The tail has been shown to contain fast and slow particles; the slow particles are on the side and the fast particles are encompassed in the center. The shape of the tail can be linked to the sun sending out fast solar winds near its poles and slow solar wind near its equator more recently. The clover-shaped tail moves further away from the sun, which makes the charged particles begin to morph into a new orientation.
Cassini and IBEX data challenged the "heliotail" theory in 2009. In July 2013, IBEX results revealed a 4-lobed tail on the Solar System's heliosphere.
Heliosphere