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Showing posts from January 25, 2015

'The Three Suns'

A rare celestial event that appears to show three suns in the sky has been filmed in the skies above Mongolia. The phenomenon, scientific name parhelion, was visible in areas across Mongolia on Sunday and shows the sun flanked by two reflections on either side. A parhelion occurs when light from a sun at low altitude passes through ice crystal fragments in the earth’s atmosphere, causing light to be refracted. This creates what seems to be a Halo around the sun with two "sun-like" balls of light on either side. A parhelion can also be known as a Sun Dog because they follow the sun like a dog follows its owner.  For a parhelion to occur there has to be very specific conditions where the temperature is lower than -30°C and the air is filled with vapour and air crystals.