Summer night sky 'shines' thanks to noctilucent clouds

Photo credit Chelsea Langlais in Forest Lake, Minn.

If you looked to the night sky Saturday night, you may have seen the luminous “night shining” clouds.

The noctilucent clouds’ high altitude gives them the ability to reflect sunlight even after the sun has set.

The clouds, composed of tiny ice crystals and minute dust particles, form in the summer months at very high altitudes, as much as 50 miles above the Earth’s surface, in the mesosphere.