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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.

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. 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, thus making it more observable from Earth than usual.

ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 recently discovered an abundance of sodium on the Moon.

See also

• Atmosphere of the Moon
• Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer

References

1. "Astronomers discover that moon has long, comet-like tail". CNN. 1999-06-07. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
2. "The Sodium Tail of the Moon". NASA. 2009-12-01. Retrieved 2017-10-20
3. "The Moon's Sodium Tail and the Leonid Meteor Shower". sirius.bu.edu. B.U. Imaging Science Team. Retrieved 2024-05-10.
4. 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.
5. "Lunar Leonids 2000". NASA. 2000-11-17. Archived from the original on 2007-11-26. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
6. "Moon's tail spotted". BBC. 1999-06-09. Retrieved 2009-11-15.
7. "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

• Siegel, Ethan. "Surprise: The Moon Doesn't Just Have An Atmosphere, But A Tail, Too". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-06.

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