Comet Lemmon's Wandering Tail
Image Credit:
Ignacio Fernández
Explanation:
What has happened to Comet Lemmon's tail? The answer is blowing in the wind — the
wind from the Sun
in this case. This continuous outflow of
charged particles from the Sun
has been
quite variable
of late, as the Sun emits bursts of energy,
CME
s, that push out and deflect charged particles emitted by the comet itself. The result is a blue hued ion tail for
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon)
that is not only
impressively intricate
but takes some unusual turns.
This long-duration composite image
taken from
Alfacar
,
Spain
last month captured this inner Solar System ionic tumult. Comet Lemmon is
now fading
as it heads
out away
from the
Earth
and Sun and back into the outer
Solar System
.