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NASA News Briefs and Releases BBSNews 2006 Compiled by Kandy Ringer |
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| Venus on Jan. 3rd, seen through an 8-inch telescope.
Image Credit: Ron Wayman of Tampa Florida. Used by permission |
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For the images shown above in a larger size, see Venusian Rainbow.
More NASA images are available in BBSNews NASA Photos. |
NASA via BBSNews - 2006-01-12 -- Venus is hanging low in the sunset sky: map. Amateur astronomers who've looked at it lately have noticed something extraordinary: Venus looks like a rainbow.
Atmospheric optics expert Les Cowley has the answer: "Our atmosphere is curved around the Earth and acts as a huge lens," he explains. "It bends the rays from objects close to the horizon so that they appear higher in the sky than they actually are. Blue and green light are bent more than red light. The result: the blue/green image of Venus rides highest in the sky while the red image hangs lowest, producing an upper blue/green rim and a lower red rim. Our giant lens is also unsteady and sometimes we see Venus rippling and flashing all the colors of the rainbow."
To read the complete story, please go to Space Weather. View the January 4th and 5th archive.