I want to thank Jenny Chandler from Springdale, AR for sending us this picture. I'm sure most of you have seen beautiful rays like this before, but what exactly are they, and how do they form?

You're looking at many different crepuscular rays! The ray's are formed by light that becomes scattered. Many different particles can act as scatterers. Snow, rain, and dust are all capable of scattering light. In addition, the atmosphere itself can scatter enough light to see the sunbeams by way of Rayleigh scattering.

Whatever the method of scattering, the visible beams will appear to diverge from the sun and spread out over a portion of the sky. You will notice in the above image that the rays appear to converge to a point. Also note from the image that the rays become less apparent the farther they are from the solar point.