New answers tagged plasma-physics
8
Close, but not quite right - the blue light is indeed emission from CO$^+$, but it's from the CO$^+$ ions themselves, with no need for recombination to CO; that (ionized) molecule has a strong set of energy transitions around 425 nm (4250 Angstroms), which is in the blue part of the visible spectrum:
Spectrum of Comet C/2016 R2 (Pan-STARRS), Figure 2 from ...
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