Elsa, is that you? NASA shares a beautiful photo of an ‘ice halo’ around the sun – and it looks just like a scene from Frozen
Elsa the Snow Queen can freeze everything she touches, shoot ice crystals from her wrists and even build entire ice palaces.
Now the star of Disney’s Frozen movie looks like she’s worked her magic in a picturesque spot in southern Germany.
A stunning photo shared by NASA shows a church near Füssen in Bavaria surrounded by ‘ice halos’ – rare phenomena caused by frozen water crystals in the air.
These stunning optical glasses can vary in shape from rings to arcs and even spots in the sky.
According to NASA, this image is rare because it captures multiple halos at once, including one in the shape of a hot air balloon.
A new photo shared by NASA shows a church near Füssen in Bavaria surrounded by ‘ice halos’ – rare phenomena caused by frozen water crystals in the air
In the Disney movie Frozen, Elsa, the Snow Queen, can shoot beams of ice from her wrists and freeze everything she touches
The perfect winter scene was captured earlier this month by German photographer Bastian Werner, who took photos near the church.
Posting to his Instagram accountMr. Werner called it “a perfect motif” and “very rare.”
“Sprinting like a maniac through the deep snow when I noticed the ice fog at the end of our shooting session in St. Coleman,” he said.
‘There was more than 60-70 cm of snow next to the chapel.
‘I rarely give a 10/10 for my own photo, but it really couldn’t be better.
‘I’ve been through so much this year, but I didn’t expect anything like this!’
On Wednesday, NASA chose the photo for its Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website, which uploads a new image to the public every day.
The space agency called it “one of the greatest spectacles” and described the science behind the formation of the “unusual flying buttresses.”
Two prominent ice halos are visible in the image: the 22-degree halo and the 46-degree halo, which is higher up. A halo that resembles the outline of a hot air balloon
The stunning photo taken by a photographer at St. Coleman Church near Füssen in Bavaria, Germany
At cold enough temperatures – below 32°F or 0°C – water floating in the air will freeze into ice, creating a faint fog.
These ice particles are not necessarily heavy enough to fall to the ground, so they remain suspended in the air and can capture sunlight.
The sunlight reflects and refracts and changes direction when it hits the crystals at an angle.
This results in an ice halo – an optical phenomenon that can vary in shape from rings to arcs and even spots in the sky.
Two prominent ice halos are visible in the image: the 22-degree halo and the 46-degree halo, which is higher up.
Several arcs are also visible, including a horizontal arc that runs parallel to the ground and a subsun arc, the upper arc toward the sun.
Finally, the balloon-shaped curve that connects the upper arc to the sun, called the helia arc, is the rarest of them all, according to NASA.
It is created by reflection from the sides of hexagonal shaped ice crystals suspended in a horizontal direction.
According to Caltech, ‘exquisite halos’ can be observed from the South Pole, resulting in particularly spectacular images.
Because temperatures in Antarctica are so cold and the air is so dry, snow crystals grow very slowly.
This slow growth tends to produce very pure hexagonal prisms, which are great for producing beautiful atmospheric displays.
In Kazakhstan, a beautiful ‘ice volcano’ arises from underground springs that spout water that freezes almost immediately
The Almaty region of Kazakhstan is covered in a thick blanket of snow and ice.
But the harsh weather hasn’t stopped thousands of people from visiting the area’s ‘ice volcano’.
The frozen structure, which stood 45 feet tall, formed above an underground spring that still spouts water
This water solidifies almost immediately when it comes into contact with the icy air – building upon the cone design over time.
Kazakhstan’s Almaty region is covered in a thick blanket of snow and ice, but the harsh weather hasn’t stopped thousands of people from visiting the area’s ‘ice volcano’
It is said to be the first to continuously eject water particles from its top vent, resembling the smoke coming out of a lava-filled volcano.
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