Can rocket thrusters create “contrails” in the vacuum of space?

I absolutely know "contrails" is the wrong word but I couldn't think of a better one to describe what I meant – a good friend and I were debating this while watching him play Star Citizen. I commented on the thruster "trails" and we began to debate the level of realism. One of us argued that no, the "contrail" would disperse almost instantly such that you wouldn't see anything behind the ship. The other argued that while yes, it would disperse over time you would still see some level of trail behind the thruster, say longer than several hundred meters (assuming the ship is going relatively low speed).

So I think the short question is – are gas/thruster trails visible in the vacuum of space?

Example from Star Citizen that started the debate
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3jq4inrppcs780yhzc1ry/contrails.png?rlkey=14v4e7m9cacj44rz9isymjixp&st=qq770aa5&dl=0