Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


A Colorful Lunar Corona
<< Yesterday 15.06.2015 Tomorrow >>
A Colorful Lunar Corona
Credit & Copyright: Sergio MontÇfar
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 purely quantum mechanical color effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. The featured lunar corona was captured around a Strawberry Moon on June 2 from La Plata, Argentina. Similar coronae that form around the Sun are typically harder to see because of the Sun's great brightness.

Huzzah: Philae lander phones home!

January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
 < June 2015  >
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930




Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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 - clouds - corona
Publications with words: Moon - clouds - corona
See also:
All publications on this topic >>