Street Pillars
May 04, 2004
Provided and copyright by: Mike Sierra
Summary authors & editors: Jim Foster; Mike Sierra
The above photo showing an array of golden pillars was taken from near Anchorage, Alaska on November 28, 2003 at about 6:00 a.m. -- a nice way to start the day. Oriented hexagonal plate crystals produced these vertical beams, but in this case the light source wasn't the Sun but street lights. Light is refracted through the underside of the plate crystal and then reflected off of the upperside before exiting the way it entered, through the underside. See also the Earth Science Picture of the Day for December 31, 2003.
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