Comet Lemmon's Wandering Tail
Image Credit:
Ignacio Fernández
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,
CMEs, 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.