By Professor Bubbles, your frog scientist who loves sky surprises 🐸🔬
❄️ A Winter Sky Mystery
On cold January days, you might look up and notice something amazing.
There is a bright ring or glow around the Sun.
Sometimes you even see bright spots on the left and right side of the Sun.
Is it magic
Is it clouds
Or is it science
It is science of course
Let us explore this winter sky mystery together.
☀️ What Is That Ring Around the Sun
The bright ring around the Sun is called a halo.
It is made by tiny ice crystals high up in the sky.
In January, the air is very cold.
High clouds are filled with small ice crystals instead of water drops.
When sunlight passes through these ice crystals, the light bends and spreads out.
This creates a glowing circle around the Sun.
❄️ Ice Crystals Act Like Tiny Prisms
Each ice crystal has flat sides.
When light goes through them, it bends just like through a prism.
This bending of light is called refraction.
Because many ice crystals are floating in the clouds, they all bend the light in the same way.
That is why the halo looks like a perfect circle.
Professor Bubbles says
The sky is doing a light experiment all by itself
🌈 Why Do You Sometimes See Colors
Some halos look white.
Others show soft rainbow colors.
The colors appear because different colors of light bend in slightly different ways.
Red bends less
Blue bends more
That is why you may see a pale rainbow in the ring.
☁️ What Kind of Clouds Make Halos
Halos are made by high thin clouds called cirrus clouds.
These clouds are:
- very high in the sky
- very cold
- full of ice crystals
Cirrus clouds are common in winter, especially in January.
🌡️ Does a Halo Mean Snow Is Coming
Many people believe that seeing a halo means snow or rain is coming soon.
That is often true.
Cirrus clouds usually arrive before a change in weather.
So a halo can be a clue that snow or rain may arrive later.
That makes halos useful for weather watching.
🧪 January Science Activity
Be a Sky Observer
What you need:
- your eyes
- a notebook
- a pencil
What to do:
- Look at the sky on cold January days
- Do not stare at the Sun directly
- Look for rings or bright spots around it
- Draw what you see
- Write the date and temperature
After a few days, check if the weather changed.
You are now a junior weather scientist.
🧠 Fun January Sky Facts
- Halos can also appear around the Moon
- Ice crystals can make light circles even at night
- Pilots use halos as weather signs
- Halos are more common in winter than summer
📚 Science Vocabulary
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Halo | A ring of light around the Sun or Moon |
| Ice crystals | Tiny pieces of frozen water |
| Refraction | When light bends as it moves through something |
| Cirrus clouds | High thin clouds made of ice |