Shortly after Mercury reached its closest point to the sun, its massive, comet-like tail became unusually visible in the night sky and was captured in a stunning new photo.
Mercury has been spotted cosplaying as a comet over the last few days when the sun's neighboring planet reached its nearest point to our star, exposing its massive, streaking tail in the night sky. One astrophotographer captured a truly epic shot of the charade.
Comets are orbiting chunks of frozen rocks, gases and dust that are almost always seen with distinctive twin tails trailing behind them — one made of gas that leaks from their interiors and another created by dust from their surfaces. These two tails are blown away from the comet in the same direction by charged particles from the sun known as solar wind.
Mercury, the solar system's smallest planet, has one comet-like tail made predominantly of sodium ions, which are scattered from the planet's surface by solar wind and micro-meteor impacts. Researchers have known about Mercury's tail since 2001 and have since discovered that it grows and shrinks based on the planet's proximity to the sun. At its peak, the tail stretches to around 14.9 million miles long, according to Spaceweather.
"Without such a filter, Mercury's tail is almost invisible to the naked eye," Voltmer told Spaceweather.com. Mercury is not the only celestial body in the solar system with a surprisingly comet-like tail. The moon also has a tail that is only visible once a month as Earth passes through it and wears it like a scarf. Like Mercury, the moon's tail is also predominantly made of millions of sodium atoms.
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