{"id":740277,"date":"2026-07-03T05:22:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740277\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T05:22:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T05:22:13","slug":"spectacular-solar-halo-spotted-over-devils-tower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740277\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Spectacular’ Solar Halo Spotted Over Devils Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lucky photographer managed to get a once-in-a-lifetime photograph of a solar halo perfectly hovering over Devils Tower\u00a0in case of being in just the right place at just the right time.<\/p>\n

The Beyond Earth Institute shared the photo<\/a>\u00a0of the 22-degree solar halo that appeared Wednesday when the sun was directly over Devils Tower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“One of nature’s most beautiful optical displays” lasted for only a few minutes before the clouds changed, and the halo faded away,\u201d said\u00a0the nonprofit group, which says it\u2019s mission is “enabling human migration into the solar system.”<\/p>\n

When Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day saw the photo, he was immediately concerned it might be an AI-generated image. After review, this one checks out and has a scientific \u2014 not science fiction \u2014 explanation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a callback to the time an alien ship famously hovered over Devils Tower in \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the clouds,\u201d Day said. \u201cThose are the perfect clouds at the right altitude and the right sun angle. It’s a spectacular picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA lucky photographer got a once-in-a-lifetime shot of a solar halo over Devils Tower on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s a spectacular picture,\u201d said meteorologist Don Day. \u201cThose are the perfect clouds at the right altitude at the right sun angle.” (Beyond Earth Institute)The Perfect Angle<\/p>\n

The phenomenon in the photo is a 22-degree solar halo. Day said that 22-degree angle is the crucial component.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are cirrostratus clouds,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re thin, high-altitude clouds with hexagonal-shaped ice crystals inside because they\u2019re so high, and that hexagonal shape causes 22-degree angles. That\u2019s how you end up getting a circle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cirrostratus clouds tend to form between 20,000 and 43,000 feet in the atmosphere. They\u2019re well known for producing halos<\/a>\u00a0and other optical phenomena when sunlight shines through them.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s remarkable about the Beyond Earth Institute\u00a0image is that the sun was at the perfect angle for the photographer to see the full circle, Day said. That\u2019s the trickiest part of capturing a full solar halo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best analogy I have is a rainbow,\u201d Day said. \u201cIf you\u2019re in the right spit with the right sun angle, you\u2019ll see the whole rainbow from end to end. Solar halos happen more often than you\u2019d think, but the cloud conditions and sun angle might only give you a partial halo.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sun is always at the center of a solar halo. The fact that this solar halo appeared when the sun was perched over\u00a0the summit of Devils Tower was a brilliant stroke of luck for the photographer.<\/p>\n

Cloudy With A Chance<\/p>\n

Most atmospheric halos are the result of light shining through ice-laden clouds. Even rainbows and ghost rainbows<\/a>\u00a0are halos, though they appear as arcs because the light is diffracted from water droplets above the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get halos through water droplets like in the fog, ice crystals from clouds, or ice crystals in really cold air,\u201d Day said. \u201cFor 22-degree solar halos, you need the right sun angle and these high cirrostratus clouds, and you don\u2019t get them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in the heat of summer, Day said it can easily be cold enough for clouds loaded with ice crystals to form over Wyoming.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’d be surprised how quickly it gets cold at this time of year,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s usually around freezing at 15,000 feet and well below freezing at 20,000 feet and above.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day expected that many of Wyoming\u2019s outdoor and wildlife photographers have seen partial or full solar halos during their long sojourns in the wilderness. Nevertheless, this solar halo above Devils Tower is something special.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey probably see these things more often than your average Joe, just because they put themselves in those situations,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I’m sure all those photographers will tell you that their best photos were the ones they didn’t plan, and this is definitely one of those. It\u2019s a gorgeous photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Angels, Devils, Or Extraterrestrials<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of people reacted to Beyond Earth\u2019s solar halo photo with varying perspectives.<\/p>\n

Many saw it as an angelic symbol crowning Devils Tower with divinity, while others wondered if this was a harbinger of what Steven Spielberg depicted at Devils Tower in 1977\u2019s \u201cClose Encounters of the Third Kind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Day\u2019s expertise on sky-related systems doesn\u2019t extend to celestial, extraterrestrial, or heavenly forces, but he didn\u2019t require any of them to understand the solar halo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get these cirrostratus clouds moving in, there\u2019s the opportunity that this will happen,\u201d he said. \u201cThis appears to be an earth-based phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lucky photographer managed to get a once-in-a-lifetime photograph of a solar halo perfectly hovering over Devils Tower\u00a0in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-740277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}