Mercury Found to Have Super Long, Glowing Tail


	Mercury Found to Have Super Long, Glowing Tail

tabsey

3-1-2008 5:27 AM

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tabsey says:

You can see it better if you close one eye.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/e62bdeb7-012a-4197-8a15-54de7e7bc702/739AC116-9617-447C-BF76-EA6AA864203F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html" href="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html" style="font-size: 11px;">dsc.discovery.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/dsc.discovery.com/img/FF950B83-1466-4237-969E-FB22528958A0" alt="One Long Tail" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><DIV class="standardWidgetPadding">One Long Tail</DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><P><STRONG>Feb. 28, 2008</STRONG> -- The first rock from the sun has a glowing dragon tail of sodium atoms that is more than seven times longer than ever suspected.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><P>New measurements of <A target="_blank" href="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/01/30/mercury-solar-system.html">Mercury's</A> yellow-orange tail, which streams in the solar wind like the long tail of a kite, put it at more than 100 times the radius of the planet itself.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><P><DIV>The neutral sodium atoms that make up the 1.6-million-mile-long streamer are thought to be blasted off the surface by the sun and micro-meteor impacts. These impart enough energy to launch the atoms into space.</DIV>
Other elements are also in the tail, but it's the sodium which lights up and can be detected.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/28/mercury-tail.html"><P>"This (sodium) ion is the 'little atom that could,'" said Mercury researcher Ann Sprague of the <A target="_blank" href="http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/">Lunar and Planetary Laboratory</A> at the University of Arizona in Tucson. It scatters photons like crazy, making it a great clue to various processes at work on and around the planet.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/739AC116-9617-447C-BF76-EA6AA864203F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content8.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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