Planet Mercury has a tail! Since when?

[Niall]

I came across this X post by a scientist yesterday:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1838020823057076630

In case you can't see the photo he posted, here it is downloaded:



Pretty neat huh? That's the Pleiades constellation above it. The photo was taken by Dr. Sebastian Voltmer, an astrophotographer, and he dated his photo in this X post as having been taken on 7 April 2022.

So, since when has Mercury had a tail?!

Since "forever," according to the few reports on it I could find - it's just only recently been detected because special filters must be applied to cameras to capture it:

Earthsky.org

Mercury has a long flowing tail trailing away from the sun, much like a comet, visible in long-exposure photographs. Scientists first predicted Mercury had a tail in the 1980s, then discovered it in 2001.

spaceweatherarchive.com

People watching Mercury climb up the evening sky this month may be wondering “why didn’t I see a tail?” Answer: A special filter is required. “I used a 589 nanometer filter tuned to the yellow glow of sodium,” says Voltmer. “Without such a filter, Mercury’s tail is almost invisible to the naked eye.”

Mercury’s tail waxes and wanes in brightness as it orbits the sun. The predictable pattern is shown in this movie from NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which spent years observing Mercury’s tail from close range:

The above video animation suggests that Mercury is behaving remarkably similar to how a comet's tail "comes and goes" in its orbit through the solar system and then around the Sun - depending on a comet's trajectory and, specifically, its 'perpendicularity to the plane of the solar ecliptic', as explained by Pierre Lescaudron in Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection. This "cyclical glow discharge" is something best explained by an Electric Universe model of astronomy.

Regarding the necessity of special filters, astrophotographers have since captured Mercury's tail... without special filters (albeit more dimly visible):

astronomy.com

Mercury is surrounded by a tenuous atmosphere dominated by sodium. In the May 1986 issue of Geophysical Research Letters, Wing-Huen Ip of the Max-Planck-Institute for Aeronomy in Germany (now the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research) theorized that radiation pressure from the solar wind could be strong enough to liberate sodium and other particles from the planet’s surface. This would produce a long cometlike tail in the anti-solar direction, where the Sun’s energy would cause the particles to glow.

Fourteen years later, Andrew Potter of the National Solar Observatory in Boulder, Colorado, and his colleagues used the 1.6-meter McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope to detect and map emission from the D2 sodium line. They found sodium atoms streaming from the planet out to a distance of 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers), proving that sodium is imparted with sufficient energy to escape the planet and form its tail. Subsequent studies have found the tail extends at least 15 million miles (24 million km) from the planet...

As Mercury’s tail is brightest within 16 days of the planet’s perihelion passage (which occurred April 27 UT), he [Paul Robinson] planned to try again on the nights of May 10–12, while vacationing in Flagstaff, Arizona, about a week prior to Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation (May 17 UT). The best night occurred on the 12th, when, from Meteor Crater Road, he imaged Mercury at about 5° altitude in dim twilight, using “normal camera equipment and methods,” and, of course, “no filter.”

While he suspected he had achieved success, he did not verify it until he returned home and processed the images. The final shot, shown above, is a composite of three enhanced images and shows the warm-hued tail, ½° long.

“I noted the tail pointed slightly north of lines parallel to the ecliptic, but Mercury was north of the ecliptic, so the angle was right! Also, it was a bit redder than the overexposed planet. I slightly suspect the possibility of an anti-tail [pointing sunward,] too.”

If Robinson saw an "anti-tail," or "sunward spike," then we can surely rule out the most-favored explanation for why Mercury has a tail (the solar wind and/or micrometeoroids "liberating atoms of Mercury's atmosphere and streaming them away from the Sun for 15 million miles.")

More to the point, Mercury's tail was seen with regular camera equipment.

Which is astonishing in its implications, not least that something is happening to Mercury NOW, not that it was recently-discovered-yet-was-always-so.

This isn't the first time they've been wrong about Mercury:

smithsonianmag

The first mission to Mercury, Mariner 10, launched in 1973 and found that Mercury still sustains a magnetic field. The discovery came as a shock to the scientific community, who had assumed that such a small planet would have rapidly cooled and its insides would have congealed, thereby losing any means of magnetism at the global scale. The presence of a magnetosphere implies that part of Mercury’s core is still churning.

Mercury’s magnetic field is about 100 times weaker than Earth’s on their respective planetary surfaces. The sluggish dynamo means that the planet is at the tail end of its developmental stage, on its way to becoming a dead planet like Mars.

In the 2010s, the second Mercury mission, Messenger, documented that the planet’s magnetic field is off kilter. The magnetic south pole doesn’t sit on the geographic south pole; instead, it is buried almost at the center of the planet.

Maybe Mercury's magnetic field is undergoing changes like Earth's wandering poles and erratic field changes?

Wikipedia

During its second flyby of the planet on October 6, 2008, MESSENGER discovered that Mercury's magnetic field can be extremely "leaky". The spacecraft encountered magnetic "tornadoes"—twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting the planetary magnetic field to interplanetary space—that were up to 800 km wide or a third of the radius of the planet. These twisted magnetic flux tubes, technically known as flux transfer events, form open windows in the planet's magnetic shield through which the solar wind may enter and directly impact Mercury's surface via magnetic reconnection. This also occurs in Earth's magnetic field.

They have indeed similarly found "signatures of storms" in Earth's tail, and that once a month the Earth passes through a faint tail given off by our Moon.

Venus is also now believed to have a tail, a mighty long one that almost reaches Earth when the two planets are closest to each other. The researchers at Thunderbolts many years ago theorized that its tail may have "glowed" at certain junctures in the past, becoming visible to Earthlings, because something going on across the "electric circuit board" of the solar system as a whole caused its tail to produce a plasma glow discharge.

And now it appears to me that they've discovered Mercury too has a tail... because it's "lighting up"!

 

[XPan]

Mercury Sodium Tail

It is a spectacular photo, really.

The image of Mercury was taken with a special filter in order to make the Sodium tail visible. Without filter - it is invisible. Spaceweather.com has written about Mercury's tail several times, and referred to the use of a filter correctly, while Astronomy.com got it wrong.

Astronomy.com
As Mercury’s tail is brightest within 16 days of the planet’s perihelion passage (which occurred April 27 UT), he [Paul Robinson] planned to try again on the nights of May 10–12, while vacationing in Flagstaff, Arizona, about a week prior to Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation (May 17 UT). The best night occurred on the 12th, when, from Meteor Crater Road, he imaged Mercury at about 5° altitude in dim twilight, using “normal camera equipment and methods,” and, of course, “no filter.” [PS: that is wrong !]

The Sodium Tail of Mercury

May 9, 2021: The biggest comet in the Solar System is actually a planet. It’s Mercury. Researchers have known for years that Mercury has an enormous tail. Last week, Andrea Alessandrini photo…

spaceweatherarchive.com

Mercury’s Comet-like Tail

April 29, 2022: Planets aren’t supposed to have tails, but Mercury does. Dr. Sebastian Voltmer just photographed it from La Palma in the Canary Islands: “This is NOT a comet, not even a…

spaceweatherarchive.com

It’s Back: The Sodium Tail of Mercury

April 12, 2023: Astronomy used to be so simple. Comets had tails, and planets did not. Mercury is making things complicated. When Dr. Sebastian Voltmer of Spicheren, France, photographed the planet…

spaceweatherarchive.com

 

[Niall]

Mercury Sodium Tail

It is a spectacular photo, really.

The image of Mercury was taken with a special filter in order to make the Sodium tail visible. Without filter - it is invisible. Spaceweather.com has written about Mercury's tail several times, and referred to the use of a filter correctly, while Astronomy.com got it wrong.

That would mean the man Astronomy.com wrote about - Paul Robinson - is either lying or mistaken about the photographs he took of Mercury's tail without filters.

Maybe we can find his original account, or retraction, somewhere...

 

[XPan]

I forgot to add the kind of filter that has been used in the black & white photo, which Spaceweather.com refered to in the first of three links, e.g. (2021)

The key to detecting Mercury’s tail is sodium. There are many elements in Mercury’s tail; sodium is only one. But because sodium is so good at scattering yellow light, it is the best element for tracing the long plume of gas. “I use a special 589 nm filter tuned to the yellow glow of sodium,” says Alessandrini. “Without that filter, Mercury’s tail would be invisible.”

Speculation: Maybe Paul Robinson used an altered sensor when he took images of Mercury and Plejades in the frame. Many astro photographers use cameras where the IR filter is taken away and other filters added to make them more sensitive within certain ranges; for example enhancing the reddish/yellow spectrum better - compared to an unaltered sensor we normally use in our cameras which block both IR and UV light.

The 589 yellow filter the other guy used, probably is a narrow band filter.

 

[Kika]

With all due respect, this is Mercury.

The god we now know as Mercury has been known at least since the time of the Sumerians (3rd millennium BC). Here he was called Gud. Later, in Babylonian times, he was known as Nebo (Nebu) . Nebu was the son of Marduk.
Marduk later became the Greek Zeus and then the Roman Jupiter . Nebo became the Greek Hermes and then the Roman Mercury .

In his job as messenger, Hermes /Mercury wears a broad-rimmed traveller's hat, or according to another source, a sun protection helmet, or winged sandals made of "imperishable gold“ and he carries the "cadeuceus" or herald's staff.

So, since when has Mercury had a tail?!
Since "forever," according to the few reports on it I could find - it's just only recently been detected because special filters must be applied to cameras to capture it:

The spacecraft encountered magnetic "tornadoes"—twisted bundles of magnetic fields connecting the planetary magnetic field to interplanetary space—that were up to 800 km wide or a third of the radius of the planet.

So what the astrophotographer captured is not Mercury's tail, but the reflection/wings from his protective helmet or his golden sandals. And they are not "twisted bundles of magnetic fields" but a caduceus.

Of course, I'm joking a little, but I can't help but wonder; What kind of cameras and filters did they have in Sumer, Greece or Rome to give Mercury these attributes.
Or indeed there was a period when Mercury's tail became more visible and without technology.

More to the point, Mercury's tail was seen with regular camera equipment.
Which is astonishing in its implications, not least that something is happening to Mercury NOW, not that it was recently-discovered-yet-was-always-so.

Also, Mercury is declared the messenger of the god, so it is quite legitimate to ask; What message does his appearance, with possibly visible tail, bring to us.

 

[Bastian]

(...) I can't help but wonder; What kind of cameras and filters did they have in Sumer, Greece or Rome to give Mercury these attributes.
Or indeed there was a period when Mercury's tail became more visible and without technology.

Also, Mercury is declared the messenger of the god, so it is quite legitimate to ask; What message does his appearance, with possibly visible tail, bring to us.

FWIW, here are some ancient names given to the planet, closest to the Sun :

1. Sumerian: Ubu-idim-gud-ud
2. Babylonian: Nabu (after their god of writing and wisdom)
3. Egyptian: Sebgu
4. Greek: The Greeks used two names:
   • Apollo (when visible in the morning sky)
   • Hermes (when visible in the evening sky) which became Mercury for the Romans.
5. Chinese: 水星 (Shuīxīng), meaning "Water Star"
6. Korean: 수성 (Suseong), meaning "Water Star" (similar to Chinese)
7. Japanese: 水星 (Suisei), also meaning "Water Star"
8. Hindu: Budha (not to be confused with Buddha)
9. Arabic: عُطَارِد (ʿUṭārid)
10. Hebrew: כוכב חמה (Kokhav Hamah)

I doubt that all these "gods" (or celestial beings) have the same attributes, such as the caduceus.

And no need for cameras/filters, if you have some psychics !
Or maybe old legends, pieces of knowledge from a disappeared advanced civilisation ?

 

[Kika]

And no need for cameras/filters, if you have some psychics !
Or maybe old legends, pieces of knowledge from a disappeared advanced civilisation ?

Yes, and there is still the possibility that we were closer, until Venus pushed in and pushed Mercury closer to the sun.

I don't know Eastern mythology and I don't know what attributes and what actions they assigned to the planet closest to the sun, but according to what you wrote

1. Chinese: 水星 (Shuīxīng), meaning "Water Star"
2. Korean: 수성 (Suseong), meaning "Water Star" (similar to Chinese)
3. Japanese: 水星 (Suisei), also meaning "Water Star"

it seems to have something to do with water.
Since they are Cass. confirmed to Laura, that Venus "stole" water from Mars that ended up on Earth, perhaps these names refer to Venus. (Turbulent events, during which one planet "disappeared", became invisible, and another took its place. I really have no idea, I'm just guessing. )

 

[Jim Daniels]

And now it appears to me that they've discovered Mercury too has a tail... because it's "lighting up"!

The pleasure I derive from orthodox Astronomy continuously "discovering" things E.U. guys wrote about 10 years ago might be a sin.

It's the main reason I subscribe to the Thunderbolts YouTube channel.

ThunderboltsProject

The Thunderbolts Project™ a Voice for the Electric Universe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Become a Producer via the PATREON Rewards program... https://patreon.com/tboltsproject Subscribe to Weekly Newsletter...

www.youtube.com

 

[dennis]

Maybe Feynman's explanation of atmospheric electrical activity has something to impart. The electrical resistivity of Sodium is relatively low.

Sodium - Electrical Resistivity and Electrical Conductivity

Sodium - Electrical Resistivity and Electrical Conductivity. Electrical resistivity and its converse, electrical conductivity, is a fundamental property of a material that quantifies how strongly it resists or conducts the flow of electric current.

www.periodic-table.org

Also, our description is oversimplified for the region very near the ground. When the step leader gets to within a hundred meters or so from the ground, there is evidence that a discharge rises from the ground to meet it. Presumably, the field gets big enough for a brush-type discharge to occur. If, for instance, there is a sharp object, like a building with a point at the top, then as the leader comes down nearby the fields are so large that a discharge starts from the sharp point and reaches up to the leader. The lightning tends to strike such a point.

It has apparently been known for a long time that high objects are struck by lightning. There is a quotation of Artabanus, the advisor to Xerxes, giving his master advice on a contemplated attack on the Greeks—during Xerxes’ campaign to bring the entire known world under the control of the Persians. Artabanus said, “See how God with his lightning always smites the bigger animals and will not suffer them to wax insolent, while these of a lesser bulk chafe him not. How likewise his bolts fall ever on the highest houses and tallest trees.” And then he explains the reason: “So, plainly, doth he love to bring down everything that exalts itself.”

Do you think—now that you know a true account of lightning striking tall trees—that you have a greater wisdom in advising kings on military matters than did Artabanus 2400 years ago? Do not exalt yourself. You could only do it less poetically.

https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/II_09.html

 

[Yupo]

Fist thing I though of were those legendary wings on his heels. The Traveler, hmmmm...
Looking much like a comet!

 

[Ricardo]

( This is context dependant but the caduceus , refers , in part (imo) to the narrow path / gate that leads to life )

 

[A Jay]

The image of Mercury was taken with a special filter in order to make the Sodium tail visible. Without filter - it is invisible. Spaceweather.com has written about Mercury's tail several times, and referred to the use of a filter correctly, while Astronomy.com got it wrong.

Astronomy.com didn't get anything wrong, though.

The author of the article wrote:

Last May, I received an email from Paul Robinson of Longmont, Colorado, alerting me to a startling fact: Mercury’s sodium tail can be imaged with simple camera equipment. He first learned this from the website spaceweather.com in a Nov. 18, 2020, post. Then, on May 10, 2021, Tony Phillips wrote about how Andrea Alessandrini had photographed Mercury’s tail from the balcony of his house in Veroli, Italy.

To capture the tail, Alessandrini attached his Pentax K3-II camera to his 2.5-inch guided refractor and took a seven-minute exposure at ISO 1000. The key to his success, he explained, was the additional use of a 589-nanometer filter tuned to the yellow glow of sodium. In the article, Alessandrini is quoted as saying, “Without that filter, Mercury’s tail would be invisible.”

These words caught Robinson’s attention. “I tend to feel things are more visible [without filters] than people often think,” he said. “So why not try?” The next day, Robinson did try, but without success. He found Mercury’s orbital position and the twilight conditions under which he observed were less than ideal. Rather than change his belief, he changed his tactics.

As Mercury’s tail is brightest within 16 days of the planet’s perihelion passage (which occurred April 27 UT), he planned to try again on the nights of May 10–12, while vacationing in Flagstaff, Arizona, about a week prior to Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation (May 17 UT). The best night occurred on the 12th, when, from Meteor Crater Road, he imaged Mercury at about 5° altitude in dim twilight, using “normal camera equipment and methods,” and, of course, “no filter.”

While he suspected he had achieved success, he did not verify it until he returned home and processed the images. The final shot, shown above, is a composite of three enhanced images and shows the warm-hued tail, ½° long.

“I noted the tail pointed slightly north of lines parallel to the ecliptic, but Mercury was north of the ecliptic, so the angle was right! Also, it was a bit redder than the overexposed planet. I slightly suspect the possibility of an anti-tail [pointing sunward,] too.”

In other words, Robinson took what was established fact as something to be tested rather than something to be accepted.

Astronomy.com acknowledged that others used filters and even reported that some claimed it was impossible for photo's of Mercury's tail to be taken without those filters.

Yet, Robinson claims to have done it and has a picture to prove it.

Speculation: Maybe Paul Robinson used an altered sensor when he took images of Mercury and Plejades in the frame. Many astro photographers use cameras where the IR filter is taken away and other filters added to make them more sensitive within certain ranges; for example enhancing the reddish/yellow spectrum better - compared to an unaltered sensor we normally use in our cameras which block both IR and UV light.

In the photo description of the picture taken by Robinson that is in the Astronomy.com article it says:

Paul Robinson used a 300mm lens on a Nikon D750 DSLR set at ISO 3200 to capture this stunning image of Mercury’s tail without a special filter. The image is a composite of three 30-second exposures.

Is this descriptive enough to know how he took the shot?

 

[XPan]

I forgot to add the kind of filter that has been used in the black & white photo, which Spaceweather.com refered to in the first of three links, e.g. (2021)

Speculation: Maybe Paul Robinson used an altered sensor when he took images of Mercury and Plejades in the frame. Many astro photographers use cameras where the IR filter is taken away and other filters added to make them more sensitive within certain ranges; for example enhancing the reddish/yellow spectrum better - compared to an unaltered sensor we normally use in our cameras which block both IR and UV light.

The 589 yellow filter the other guy used, probably is a narrow band filter.

Mercury's Sodium Tail
20 Dec 2024, Christ Church, Barbados

Spaceweather.com Time Machine

Today, published at spaceweather.com, photographer David Marshall made Mercury's sodium tail visible with help of a 589 nm narrow band filter, by taking 10 exposures á 10 seconds, which he then stacked together.

He wrote:

"Despite hazy and partly cloudy conditions, Mercury did not disappoint. Its sodium ion tail is approximately 1 degree long in this image and is expected to become more prominent over the next couple of days. To capture, I used a Canon 85mm lens attached to a ZWO ASI 462 with a 589nm filter. The final image is cropped from a stack of 10 exposures each 10 seconds long."

The bright star nearby likely is the main star in Scorpio; Antares.