Astronomy Picture of the Day - Sun Pillar with Upper Tangent Arc

APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 17 Feb, 2021 | Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Cohea

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: This was not a typical sun pillar. Just after sunrise two weeks ago in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, a photographer, looking out his window, was suddenly awestruck. The astonishment was caused by a sun pillar that fanned out at the top. Sun pillars, singular columns of light going up from the Sun, are themselves rare to see, and are known to be caused by sunlight reflecting from wobbling, hexagon-shaped ice-disks falling through Earth's atmosphere. Separately, upper tangent arcs are known to be caused by sunlight refracting through falling hexagon-shaped ice-tubes. Finding a sun pillar connected to an upper tangent arc is extraordinary, and, initially, took some analysis to figure out what was going on. A leading theory is that this sun pillar was also created, in a complex and unusual way, by falling ice tubes. Few might believe that such a rare phenomenon was seen again if it wasn't for the quick thinking of the photographer -- and the camera on his nearby smartphone.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌

[blueunicorn6]

And then you have alien tanks attacking.

[mylife]

Very cool.

[bimboeruption]

It looks like a martini glass.

[Repeal The 17th]

Cat is “fanned out”...

[ETL]

It tis thy Holy Grail...

[ETL]

[grey_whiskers]

40-year-old Karen Winedrinker’s answer to the Bat Signal.

[PfromHoGro]

Martini? Cosmo? ..

[ragamuffin]

Rush’s spirit on his way to Heaven...

[ETL]

[doorgunner69]

“are known to be caused by sunlight reflecting from wobbling, hexagon-shaped ice-disks falling through Earth’s atmosphere.”

I wonder just how someone “knows” this.

[ETL]

[Seruzawa]

Actual photo before NASA scrubbed it:

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“It looks like a martini glass.”

“...upper tangent arcs are known to be caused by sunlight refracting through falling hexagon-shaped ice-tubes.”

My Bad! I was mixing my Breakfast Martini at the time, and I spilled the ice bucket. ;)

[Ken H]

Are they as comfortable as My Pillar?

[ragamuffin]

Thank you. A worthy reply on such a sad day.

[Red Badger]