14 DAY TRIAL // If there ever was a time to be jealous of the Brits, this might be it. Thus, just yesterday, a seriously creepy yet utterly and completely fascinating halo formed around the bright moon towering over the UK.
The bizarre phenomenon was caught on camera by folks across the country, and not at all surprisingly, photos documenting it are now making rounds online.
How the odd-looking halo formed
Don't fret, the halo that was visible around the moon this past February 2 wasn't put there by some witch or wizard looking to scare the life out of people. In a nutshell, it was a natural phenomenon.
Thus, specialists say that the halo formed due to the presence of ice crystals in the air, at an altitude of about 20,000 feet (roughly 6,100 meters). These ice crystals refracted the sunlight bouncing off the surface of the moon and heading our way.
Scientists say that, depending on how the light that hits them is refracted, the halos birthed by this phenomenon can be dozens of times greater than the moon, which becomes a bright spot hidden right behind them.
Ice crystals can also distort the image of the sun
Just a few days ago, people living in Mongolia were stunned to see as many as three suns shining bright over their heads. This happened not because Mongolia accidentally moved to another universe, but because of ice crystals in the air.
What's more, it was in mid-January that a man named Joshua Thomas chanced to photograph some seriously impressive halos shining bright over the town of Red River in New Mexico, US.
“Ice halos are atmospheric phenomena that can occur around the sun or the moon, when tiny crystals of ice in the atmosphere refract and reflect light, creating a halo around the solar or lunar source,” explains specialist Ben Biggs.
Furthermore, “Even the more ordinary halos are fairly uncommon in the UK but in particularly bright and bitter conditions, such as in the US, absolutely spectacular ice halo displays can appear.”
