Distribution of meta-particle sizes in the tail produced by ejecting meta-particles with a spherically symmetric distribution from a planet of mass 8.4 × 10⁻⁶ M_⊕ and radius of0.020 R_⊕ at a velocity of 3.0 times the planet’s surface escape velocity (or 674 m s⁻¹). Left panel: number of meta-particles in each size bin (vertical axis) as a function of angular displacement along the tail with positive phases being ahead of the planet (horizontal axis). Right panel: same as left but instead of showing the absolute number of meta-particles, it shows the probability of finding a meta-particle within a given size bin at that angular displacement along the tail, so that the sum over all meta-particle sizes for a given angular phase (column) is one.