In the darkness of Mercury’s long night, astronomers have detected a faint sodium glow trailing millions of kilometers behind the planet. This phenomenon, resembling a ghostly tail, occurs due ...

This is an image of Mercury's tail obtained from combining a full day of data from a camera aboard the STEREO-A spacecraft. The reflected sunlight off the planet's surface results in a type of ...

where they cool into a long and dusty tail. The dramatic demise of this planet is a consequence of its low mass, which is between that of Mercury and the moon. More massive terrestrial planets ...