People who glanced skyward on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 28, may have noticed a luminous ring encircling the moon, a striking sight that prompted photos, social media posts and plenty of questions.The glowing circle, known as a lunar halo, is a natural atmospheric phenomenon caused not by the moon itself, but by ice crystals high above the Earth’s surface.According to the National Weather Service, moon halos form when light from the moon passes through thin, high-altitude clouds made up of ice crystals, typically cirrostratus clouds. As the light bends, or refracts, through the six-sided crystals, it spreads out into a ring that appears about 22 degrees away from the moon.The result is a soft, white halo that can sometimes show faint hints of color along its edges, simila
