Ring Around the Sun

When ancient man looked up into the sky and saw sights that he was unable to understand, he felt a strong need to be able to explain them. This is how the various myths about different pagan gods and goddesses began. Each natural phenomenon managed to produce yet another celestial being to be worshiped and at times feared.

A great many things that they believed in have since been explained by science and technology. Still every once in a while a natural sight takes your breath away and you again begin to think of the powers that could create it. One such sight was the perfectly circular halo seen surrounding the sun in Mexico earlier this year.

Halo around the sun or the moon is not really anything to do with pagan gods or witchcraft. Even though it may have you thinking about angels visiting the earth, there is a perfectly reasonable scientific explanation for the phenomenon.  It is created by the hexagonal crystals of ice in the upper atmosphere as the sunlight is refracted through them.

A similar sight may also be created by water droplets in the atmosphere, but that halo will be smaller and have a whole lot more color in it. So that’s one more ancient mystery solved by the marvels of scientific experimentation.