A rainbow appeared in Taiwan last week which lasted for nearly nine hours and may have created the new record for the world’s longest lasting rainbow. Two professors at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Chou Kun-Hsuan and Lui Ching-Huan, documented the rainbow.

According to a BBC report, the professors are in the university’s department of atmospheric sciences and enlisted the help of students and the campus community in their task.

Professor Chou couldn’t contain his excitement and exclaimed that it was amazing and felt like a gift from the sky. He added that it was a very rare phenomenon.

According to the data gathered at the university, the rainbow lasted for eight hours and 58 minutes, from 06:57 am to 15:55 pm. It broke the previous record for the longest-lasting rainbow that was set in Yorkshire after the phenomenon appeared for six hours on 14 March 1994.

Various factors contributed to this magnificent rainbow including seasonal monsoons that have trapped moist air, which formed clouds, alongside relatively slow winds and lots of sunlight.

The department of atmospheric sciences is now gathering its evidence together to submit to Guinness World Records.