That orange streak is Mercury with its glowing sodium plasma tail, passing in front of the Pleiades cluster.
Impressive capture by Dr Sebastian Voltmer.
https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=184299
Impressive capture by Dr Sebastian Voltmer.
https://spaceweathergallery.com/indiv_upload.php?upload_id=184299
Comments
As I was juggling three little ones and various family shenanigans at this time I am not sure I actually managed to look up at the sky let alone keep up to date with solar system discoveries.
I think there are seven now.
Will it ever run out of sodium to burn? If that’s what’s going on?
🔥
Lovely photo😊
My immediate thought was wow, looks a bit like the recent Comet A3, so I'll have to do a bit of research into Na tail of Mercury.
If God made Science, then you'd have your own posts of cool stuff that really happens, to comment on- instead of competing with and diminishing the triumphs of smart people & their hard work.
But a few doses of pleiades cured it
Glowing Biologists need to know!
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/mercurys-sodium-tail/
"Planets. It remains for us to speak of the five stars which many have called wandering, and which the Greeks call Planeta (Planets)...This fifth star is Mercurius' [Hermes'], named Stilbon. "
https://bsky.app/profile/toughsf.bsky.social/post/3lb2h6rwefk2n
There is no god
There are no gods
There is no afterlife
Religion is a con trick
If things aren’t calm…is it really the end?
🙃
You might want to read up on that a little more, before you start preaching here.
There’s a time and a place for sharing the Word. But it’s not every-time and every-place.
Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Colossians 4:6
You’re a sharer of truth, not a “God-cannon”, blasting the Bible at everyone you find. That’s counter-productive.
Matthew 13:3-8
Be judicious in your sowing.
Mercury's is formed from sodium atoms being blasted free of its 'exosphere' (like an atmosphere, but too thin to behave like gases), and then fluorescing, due to cosmic radiation (like our polar auroras).
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-tail-of-mercury
You are wonderful.
The let me go 62 years without knowing this??
TIL.
Or, "I was today years old when I learned Mercury has a visible sodium plasma trail."
Or just: "That is hella cool, thanks for sharing!"
https://www.instagram.com/sebastianvoltmer/
"How is the tail formed? The solar wind and micro-meteorites eject sodium atoms from Mercury's surface. This creates a yellow-orange tail of sodium gas that is around 2.5 million kilometers long."
If you’re not careful.
Space is so cool.
I thought Mercury was pretty much like a diamond or charcoal rock orbiting closest to Sol.
The discoveries just keep on coming.
Very nice!
I mean, “orange skid mark” fits.