Children tend to be naturally inquisitive, and one of their more frequent inquiries about why the sky is blue can often be answered with this simple fact: light scatters more strongly into blue wavelengths than other colors (red, orange, yellow, green, indigo and violet). But why does that occur, and why does the sky look…
Blue skies form when violet and blue light wavelengths are scattered more effectively by oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere than longer wavelengths such as red and orange ones, which pass directly through. Rayleigh scattering is the name given to this process and it has its roots in 1871 when Lord Rayleigh first identified…
White light contains all of the colors of the rainbow, yet appears blue due to atmospheric scattering of its wavelengths. This phenomenon also accounts for why sunsets and sunrises tend to look red as longer wavelengths travel further through our atmosphere before reaching our eyes. The Sun’s Light An astounding blue sky is truly spectacular…
