Science & Exploration
Phaethon shines and vanishes
Comparing images of the asteroid Phaethon taken with different filters on SOHO’s LASCO coronograph. On the left, the orange filter reveals the shining asteroid Phaethon with a surrounding cloud and small tail. The brightness of this emission in the orange filter suggests that sodium atoms from the surface of the asteroid fluoresce with an orange glow in response to sunlight, as the asteroid passes close to the Sun at perihelion.
On the right, the blue filter shows no sign of Phaethon, indicating that the light emitted is undetectable in this filter. These images were captured in May 2022. Phaethon is thought to be the parent asteroid of the Geminids meteor shower, which illuminates the night sky every December.
