ok me an dmy girlfriend were outside two nights ago and noticed that the moon was PERFECTLY in the center of a PERFECT circle in the sky it was extremely weird i have never seen anythign like it ? what was it that i saw? a percet could? lol i dont understand
2007-01-04 05:06:22 · 5 answers · asked by umm hahah 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
A Ring Around The Moon
The ring around the Moon is caused by the refraction of Moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere. The shape of the ice crystals results in a focusing of the light into a ring. Since the ice crystals typically have the same shape, namely a hexagonal shape, the Moon ring is almost always the same size.
Less typical are the halos that may be produced by different angles in the crystals. They can create halos with an angle of 46 degrees.
2007-01-04 05:17:56 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Halos are caused by the light of the sun or moon passing through a very thin layer of cirruform (ice-crystal) clouds in the upper atmosphere. The ice crystals refract the light of the moon, similar to the way water droplets in the lower atmosphere can refract sunlight to produce a rainbow. Just like a rainbow, strong halos can have bands of color in them, due to slightly different refractive properties of the ice crystals for different colors. Essentially, halos ARE rainbows caused by primary refraction in ice crystals.
Some interesting facts about halos: Halos always occur exactly 22 degrees away from the sun or moon. Occasionally, intense halos can be double halos, just as intense rainbows can be doubled. Intense halos can also produce "moondogs" or "sundogs," very bright regions on the halo evenly spaced at 90 degree intervals around the halo.
2007-01-04 13:13:40 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is the light from the Moon being refracted through ice crystals in the sky. It happens more (and you can see it more) in winter because you can have a cloudless sky and have ice crystals floating about at the same time. A similar effect can be seen with thin clouds.
2007-01-04 13:11:08 · answer #3 · answered by me 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The ring is caused by water droplets or ice crystals in the atmosphere interacting with the moonlight.
2007-01-04 13:09:35 · answer #4 · answered by Gene 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Actually, this is due to the fact that the Moon and the Sun were married just at that exact time.
2007-01-04 14:10:16 · answer #5 · answered by mitchellvii 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋