December 27, 2022
On the day you were born, the universe did what it has always done best: transformed chaos into beauty.
A Full Circle Rainbow over Norway
Birthday · December 27, 2022
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APOD published December 27, 2022. Credit: Lukas Moesch. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Have you ever seen an entire rainbow? From the ground, typically, only the top portion of a rainbow is visible because directions toward the ground have fewer raindrops. From the air, though, the entire 360-degree circle of a rainbow is more commonly visible. Pictured here, a full-circle rainbow was captured over the Lofoten Islands of Norway in September by a drone passing through a rain shower. An observer-dependent phenomenon primarily caused by the internal reflection of sunlight by raindrops, the rainbow has a full diameter of 84 degrees. The Sun is in the exact opposite direction from the rainbow's center. As a bonus, a second rainbow that was more faint and color-reversed was visible outside the first.
Image credit: Lukas Moesch