Astronomy Picture of the Day Featured an Unusual Anti-Crepuscular Rainbow Halo
20.10.2026, 08:04·
COLLECTED AND VERIFIED AUTOMATICALLY
The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website, which NASA publishes daily in collaboration with Michigan Technological University, presented an image capturing a rare atmospheric phenomenon — the so-called 'anti-crepuscular rainbow fan'. Anti-crepuscular rays occur at the point in the sky opposite the Sun and represent a continuation of ordinary crepuscular rays, which radiate from the solar disk through clouds or other obstructions. Due to the perspective effect, these rays, which are actually parallel, appear to converge at the point opposite the Sun.
In this case, the image's uniqueness lies in the combination of anti-crepuscular rays with rainbow colors, making the phenomenon particularly rare and striking to observe. Such optical effects occur due to the scattering and refraction of sunlight in the atmosphere when certain conditions are present — clouds, water droplets, or ice crystals positioned at the right angle to the observer.
The APOD project has existed for several decades and remains one of the world's most popular astronomical resources. Daily, a team of professional astronomers selects an image of the cosmos or atmospheric phenomena and accompanies it with a brief scientific explanation accessible to a wide audience. The site's archive contains thousands of images — from distant galaxies and nebulae to rare atmospheric effects observed on Earth, such as the anti-crepuscular rainbow fan presented here.
This article was generated and published automatically from verified sources. If you spot an inaccuracy, it will be corrected on the pipeline's next pass.
