Sodium tail of the Moon
The Moon has been shown to have a "tail" of sodium atoms too faint to be detected by the human eye. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers long, the feature was discovered in 1998 as a result of scientists from Boston University observing the Leonid meteor shower.[1][2][3]
The Moon is constantly releasing atomic sodium as a fine dust from its surface due to photon-stimulated desorption, solar wind sputtering, and meteorite impacts.[4] Solar radiation pressure accelerates the sodium atoms away from the Sun, forming an elongated tail toward the antisolar direction.
The continual impacts of small meteorites produce a constant "tail" from the Moon, but the Leonids intensified it,[5] thus making it more observable from Earth than usual.[6]
ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 recently[when?] discovered an abundance of sodium on the Moon.[7]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ "Astronomers discover that moon has long, comet-like tail". CNN. 1999-06-07. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
- ^ "The Sodium Tail of the Moon". NASA. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2017-10-20
- ^ "The Moon's Sodium Tail and the Leonid Meteor Shower". sirius.bu.edu. B.U. Imaging Science Team. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
- ^ Matta, M. Smith; Smith, S.; Baumgardner, J.; Wilson, J.; Martinis, C.; Mendillo, M. (December 1, 2009). "The Sodium Tail of the Moon". Icarus. 204 (2). NASA: 409–417. Bibcode:2009Icar..204..409M. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2009.06.017 – via ScienceDirect.
- ^ "Lunar Leonids 2000". NASA. 2000-11-17. Archived from the original on 2007-11-26. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
- ^ "Moon's tail spotted". BBC. 1999-06-09. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
- ^ "Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter Maps An 'Abundance of Sodium' On the Moon's Surface for the First Time Ever; Here's What It Means". The Weather Channel. Retrieved 2022-11-08.
External links
[edit]- Siegel, Ethan. "Surprise: The Moon Doesn't Just Have An Atmosphere, But A Tail, Too". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-06.
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