Halo, what's that?

The fifth phase of the Assembly elections kept city streets nearly empty until people came out in hordes to witness what became the most talked about subject for the rest of the day, giving poll chit-chat a tough competition. An unusual halo surrounding the sun was witnessed around noon, triggering strange reactions from citizens who rushed on to the streets, reached their roofs as well as flooded the social media with pictures captured on their smartphones.While some thought it was a peculiar rainbow, others believed it was an indication of the impending doomsday . CT tried to find out the scientific explanation behind this and here's what we found.WHAT WE SAW?


A multi-coloured ring resembling a rainbow around the sun on a semi-cloudy day .

WHEN?


Around noon on Saturday .

WHAT WAS IT?


According to astronomers, the phenomenon is called a sun halo. It is an optical condition created when light interacts with ice crystals present in the clouds. Halos indicate the arrival of thin cirrus clouds drifting 20,000 feet or more above the earth's surface. These clouds contain millions of tiny ice crystals.The halos are caused by refraction and reflection of light through the ice crystals.

“It is not a rainbow, rather a 22° halo. The name is such because it forms a circle with a radius of approximately 22° around the sun. A similar phenomenon may also occur around the moon,“ said Kaustuv Chaudhuri, astronomer and general secretary of Kolkata Astronomy Centre.

SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ

Social media went into a tizzy as everyone from celebs to aam admi flooded Facebook timelines and Twitter with amazing photos of the halo. Soon, selfies with the indelible ink were pipped to the post by photos of the sun.Actor Abir Chatterjee tweeted a picture and captioned it, “What's this ring around the sun?“ Similarly , actor Gaurav Chakrabarty expressed his curiosity by tweeting, “What's this ring around the sun? Anyone knows what it is?“ with a photo.

While our celebs played the guessing game, a Facebook user took the speculation to just another level. He thought it was a UFO and aliens have launched an attack on us.