NASA reveals incredible image of circular rainbow around the moon

They’re often seen as lucky, but try to find the end of the rainbow in this incredible image and you might struggle.

NASA has revealed a stunning photo of what looks like a circular rainbow surrounding the moon.

The colourful rings are actually a corona, which appeared around the full moon above Turin, Italy in 2014.

NASA has featured the image, snapped by photographer Giorgia Hofer, as its Astronomy Picture of the Day.

The space agency explained: “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 colours has different wavelengths, each colour diffracts differently.

“Lunar Coronae are one of the few quantum mechanical colour effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye.”

While similar coronae often form around the sun, these tend to be more difficult to see than lunar corona.

NASA added: “Similar coronae that form around the Sun are usually harder to see because of the Sun's great brightness.”

This isn't the first time that NASA has featured a rainbow photo as its Astronomy Picture of the Day.


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