NASA's October 4 picture feature revisited a Jersey Shore rainbow with closely spaced bands inside its main arc. These narrow bands are known as supernumerary rainbows.
NASA describes conditions involving small water droplets of nearly uniform size. The extra bands arise from the wave behavior of light: parts of the light reaching an observer reinforce or cancel one another. The result is finer structure than the broad colored arc usually associated with a rainbow.
The photograph was taken in 2018 after the remnants of Hurricane Florence passed through New Jersey. NASA also carried it in its October 2, 2018 APOD. The 2026 feature is a new explanation of that older image, rather than a report of a new storm or a display seen that Sunday.
Supernumerary bands sit close together inside the primary bow. A separate, more widely spaced outer arc is a different rainbow feature. The position and spacing of the arcs distinguish the narrow interference bands from a secondary rainbow; calling every stripe a complete second rainbow would miss what NASA's caption is describing.
Editing can make a faint band easier to notice in a photograph. An edited result does not establish that stronger colors or additional arcs were visible in the sky.
The source links show the original photograph and its caption. The photographer's work is not reproduced here.
