The sun's closest neighbor was able to make its closest approach and reveal its comet-like tail flaring through the night sky. Sebastian Voltmer, an astrophotographer, was able to snap the epic sight.
Mercury's Comet-like Tail
As per Live Science, the solar system's smallest planet has a comet-like tail that mainly consists of sodium ions. Both small meteor impacts and solar winds end up scattering these ions from Mercury's surface.
Mercury's tail is described as comet-like due to the tail-like nature of these cosmic objects. Comets are orbiting rock, gas, or dust chunks. In most cases, they can be seen with unique twin tails following them from behind. One of these tails consists of gas that leaked out from their insides, while the other is made of surface dust. Both tails are blown away from the comet by solar winds.
Mercury's comet-like tail has been known to specialists since 2001, but its existence was first predicted back in the 1980s. Scientists later found out that the tail shrinks and grows depending on how close it is to the sun. NASA also had a dedicated mission known as MESSENGER that spent over four years observing the sun's closest neighbor.
According to Spaceweather, this comet-like tail can span roughly 24 kilometers in length. This is around 62 times the distance that separates the moon and earth.
Live Science adds that this sodium tail spans such a distance due to the planet's weak atmosphere and close proximity to the sun.
Interestingly, this sodium tail is most visible from earth 16 days after the perihelion, which is the planet's closest point with the sun. Mercury reached this point on April 1, which means that its comet-like tail shone brightest by the 17th.
Snapping Mercury's Tail
Yahoo! News reports that it may be hard for casual observers to spot this comet-like tail. This could be the reason why it remained undiscovered until 2001.
However, Voltmer was able to snap the huge plume, thanks to a special filter that stresses yellow light wavelengths which sodium particles give off in their tail. Voltmer notes that without the filter, the comet-like tail is nearly invisible in plain sight.
While Mercury's comet-like tail is indeed interesting, it is not the only cosmic body in the solar system with such a feature. Live Science notes that the moon actually has a tail that can only be seen once a month. This is when the earth passes through it and ends up "wearing it like a scarf." Similar to that of Mercury, the moon's tail also mainly consists of sodium ions. The unique feature was first discovered in 1988.
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