A rainbow is not a physical object but an optical phenomenon caused by sunlight entering water droplets in the atmosphere and reflecting off the inside of the droplets. The light exits the droplet and is refracted, with red on the outside of the rainbow and violet on the inside in a spectrum of colors. We only see part of the full circular rainbow from the ground, but from an airplane one can see the entire circle under the right conditions. There are several types of rainbows including single, double, moonbows and fogbows that are unique optical phenomena.