Discover the cosmosEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation:Yes, but can your rainbow do this?
After the remnants ofHurricane Florencepassed over the Jersey Shore, New Jersey,USAin 2018, the Suncame out in one direction but something quite unusual appeared in the opposite direction: ahallofrainbows.
Over the course of the next half hour, to the delight of the photographer and his daughter, vibrantsupernumerary rainbowsfaded in and out, with at leastfive capturedinthisfeatured single shot.
Supernumerary rainbowsonly form when fallingwater droplets are all nearly the same sizeand typically less than a millimeter across.
Then, sunlight will not only reflect from inside the raindrops, butinterfere, a wave phenomenon similar toripples on a pondwhen a stone is thrown in.
In fact, supernumerary rainbowscanonlybe explained with waves, and their noted existence in the early 1800s was considered early evidence oflight’s wave nature.
Your Sky Surprise:What picture did APOD feature on your birthday?Tomorrow’s picture:open space