January 19, 2021
You were born into motion: oceans turning, continents drifting, clouds forming, planets circling, galaxies wheeling through the dark.
A Lunar Corona with Jupiter and Saturn
Birthday · January 19, 2021
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APOD published January 19, 2021. Credit: Alessandra Masi. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Why does a cloudy moon sometimes appear colorful? The effect, called a lunar corona, 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 colors has different wavelengths, each color diffracts differently. Lunar Coronae are one of the few quantum mechanical color effects that can be easily seen with the unaided eye. Solar coronae are also sometimes evident. The featured composite image was captured a few days before the close Great Conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter last month. In the foreground, the Italian village of Pieve di Cadore is visible in front of the Sfornioi Mountains. New: APOD is now available in Taiwanese from National Central University
Image credit: Alessandra Masi