Hi Russ,
That is chromatic abberationm, often called just "CA", it is a lens defect, present in almost all lenses to some extent, especially zooms.
It will always be worst at the edges of frame because the light from ther has gone through the edges of the lens. In the centre, you shouldn't see it. On the opposite side of the picture from this, the colours (on a dark object) will be swapped; i.e. red on left and green on right. However, it isn't about a 'dark object' per se, it is about transitions from light to dark or vice versa (near the edge of a picture), so you'll also see it on light objects against a dark background.
Some lenses display other 'colour pairs'; e.g. yellow/blue, green/magenta, or the red/cyan you have here.
I can't see the original image (I have Tinypic issues
), but from the close up, which looks to be about a 400% enlarged crop out of the edge of a larger image (and from top left or bottom right corners), that's definitely what it is.
There also look to be some sharpening or local contrast enhancements there too.
Some PP software could correct that (
if shot RAW), but if this started life as an in camera jpg, then you are probably stuck with it, because attempting to do that kind of thing after the jpg sharpening will probably only make things worse (just my theory, I haven't tried it).
Best regards,