A passenger plane has been photographed brightening the skies over Germany as it leaves a rainbow-colored trail.
The trail is an aerodynamic contrail - short for condensation trail - as opposed to the more common jet contrail that forms from exhaust fumes.
Counter aerodynamics occurs when an airplane lowers air pressure while flying, which in turn lowers the air temperature and causes condensation to form on the wings. This condensation then flows backwards as the plane advances.
Under certain humid conditions, the temperature and pressure drop is such that condensation droplets will freeze of any size.
When sunlight hits these droplets of different sizes, the sunlight will refract at different wavelengths, so that variations in color can be seen.
Photographer Nick Beyersdorf captures the phenomenon from the ground in Bamberg, Germany.
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