The nearly frictionless interplay between the jetting shards of dry ice and the watery surface of "Icy Bodies" (shown in the inset image) permits the frozen fragments to move and spin freely as they exude trails of water mist similar in appearance to ice and dust veils of comet tails. Dry ice shards streaming trails of vapor resemble the nucleus and tail of comet Hale-Bopp (shown in the main background image). 

Main image: Comet Hale-Bopp (photo credit: Conrad Jung)   Inset image: "Icy Bodies" artwork (photo credit: Kua Patten)

How It Works:  "Icy Bodies" is a sculpture designed and built by Shawn Lani.  In this artwork, small chips of dry ice are dispensed onto a shallow pool of water.  Heating of the dry ice by the water causes it to sublimate (change from a solid directly into a gas).  The dry ice rides almost without friction on a cushion of outgassed carbon dioxide as jets of gas propel the fragment, tumbling, across the water.