Sodium_tail_of_the_Moon
Sodium tail of the Moon
Astrochemical phenomenon near lunar orbit
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]
