The sky appears blue because light passing through Earth’s atmosphere gets scattered and dispersed into space, most dramatically when directly overhead by the Sun. Light rays that have shorter wavelengths like blue and violet are deflected in different directions by minute air molecules, while when longer wavelengths such as red, orange and yellow reach the…
Looking up at the night sky or at pictures of space can make you believe it is all black – so why is the sky blue? Answering that question involves understanding how light interacts with particles in the atmosphere. Air molecules are smaller than visible light wavelengths, so they scatter it more intensely via Rayleigh…
As sunlight enters Earth’s atmosphere, its light is dispersed through gases and particles in the atmosphere by various gases and particles; light toward the blue end of the spectrum is scattered more widely than red end light, giving Earth its signature blue hue. As writers, it is our responsibility to pay close attention to reader…
No one can resist a beautiful day with blue skies! These lovely views result from sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere and being scattered by oxygen and nitrogen molecules present therein, particularly those with shorter wavelengths, like blue. As light with shorter wavelengths like blue has more chance to get scattered than other colors due to…
