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Credit & Copyright: Jeff Dai
Explanation:
What are those colorful rings around the Sun?
A corona visible only
to
Earth observers in the right place at the right time.
Rings like this will sometimes appear when the Sun or
Moon is seen through thin clouds.
The effect is created by the
quantum mechanical
diffraction of light around
individual,
similarly-sized water droplets
in an intervening but mostly-transparent cloud.
Since light of
different colors
has different wavelengths, each color diffracts differently.
Solar Coronae are one of the few
quantum color effects
that can be easily seen with the unaided eye.
This type of solar corona is a visual effect due to water in
Earth's atmosphere and is altogether different from the
solar corona that exists continually around the Sun --
and
stands out during a
total solar eclipse.
In the foreground is the famous
Himalayan mountain peak
Ama Dablam (Mother's Necklace),
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day