Inverted rainbow or illusion 'teasing' viewers of creation?

The reverse rainbow was discovered by Italian astronomer and elementary school teacher Marcella Giulia Pace as the sun was about to set in the sky on February 24.

NASA recently shared a beautiful photo, capturing an inverted rainbow, or "circular arc", appearing above a palm tree in Sicily - the autonomous administrative region of Italy. According to NASA, this particular rainbow is a good example of the concept of an "ice halo," or the product of refraction and reflection that take place simultaneously within flat hexagonal ice crystals.

An inverted rainbow appears above a palm tree in Sicily.

According to the explanation, they are not actual rainbows, but are created by a similar process. Specifically, while rainbows are the result of reflection and deflection of sunlight as it passes through raindrops, reverse rainbows and similar halos are the result of light deflecting as they travel. through ice crystals suspended high in the atmosphere.

These ice crystals can appear in many shapes and have different directions of movement. In it, each shape leads to an arc or halo pattern with a different display pattern.

The interesting phenomenon with an inverted rainbow was discovered by Italian astronomer and primary school teacher, Marcella Giulia Pace, 47, when the sun was about to set in the sky on February 24.

Marcella attached the caption, saying that this unique phenomenon may have appeared "countless times" in the sky, but is easily overlooked because we are too busy looking at our phones, or busy with daily chores.

Many locals refer to this phenomenon as the "smiling rainbow", because its color is inverted from the common rainbows we often observe, and is shaped like a smile.

"Of all the halo phenomena, this is the case with the most vivid and vibrant colors. As you can see in the photo, it's even more vivid than ordinary rainbows." NASA notes in the posted article.

This image was selected by NASA as "Astronomical Image of the Day".

How is a rainbow formed?

A rainbow is a multicolored arc, defined as the dispersion of sunlight as it refracts and reflects through raindrops.

Accordingly, the light entering the water droplet is refracted and its direction is changed. That light is then reflected off the back of the drop.

When this reflected light leaves the drop, it is refracted again at various angles, resulting in a color change.

The spectrum that we see consists of light of many different wavelengths. In which, red has the longest wavelength and purple is the shortest.

Because light of each wavelength is reflected at a different angle, the spectrum splits, creating a rainbow.