>Just curious... if a mirage (aka fatamorgana in some languages) is just a refracted image of an object which is farther than it looks, is the refraction symmetrical? If we pointed a laser to it, would it get there?

My guesses:

- In response to your exact question, I believe the answer is "no". If the miraging process magnifies the image, when going backwards the effect would be the same as passing light backwards through, say, a telephoto lens.

- My understanding is a mirage does not necessarily magnify or shrink a distant image, it just makes it visible when it would normally not be due to the curvature of the earth. That said, if the image is the same size, or shrunk, the effect *might* be symmetric. But in general I'd expect there to be a much larger set of asymmetric refractive phenomena that could cause the effect from image to observer, but prevent transmission back from observer to image. So, theoretically possible, but unlikely.