Rainbow Pie in the Sky

Lovely!

Here's an un-retouched Pi-in-the-sky I got near the Florida Everglades.

Pumpkin, my favorite!

-e

I've seen this phenomenon myself, except that it wasn't so pronounced as is this example. As far as I know this is a natural phenomenon. The article whose link you included seems to do a fair job of explaining the cause, although it's anyone's guess whether the article is correct.

I'm not sure why you emphasized the jet contrail, however.

-e

That must have been really spectacular to have shown up that well on film, or they had a sophisticated camera or enhanced the image. I once saw a triple rainbow where the main arc stretched from horizon to horizon and seemed so bright it looked almost solid. I took pictures of it with an inexpensive 35 mm camera, but the result was underwhelming and only the first two arcs were visible.

"Sun dogs", which must be a similar phenomena caused by ice in the upper atmosphere, are relatively common and are associated with the sun lower in the sky. I would guess that sun dogs do not require the hexagonal ice formation.

'Seems to me if we can determine the elemental makeup of a star or planet Kazillions of miles away, it shouldn't be too hard to find out what is really up there. But then, maybe we shouldn't know.