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Credit & Copyright: Giorgia Hofer
(Cortina Astronomical Association)
Explanation:
What are those colorful rings around the Moon?
A corona.
Rings like this will sometimes appear when the 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.
Lunar Coronae are one of the few
quantum mechanical color effects that can be
easily seen with the unaided eye.
The
featured lunar corona was captured around
full Moon above
Turin,
Italy in 2014.
Similar coronae that form
around the Sun are usually harder to
see because of the Sun's
great brightness.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Moon
Publications with words: Moon
See also: