At noontime, most of the light reaching our eyes appears blue due to gases in our atmosphere scattering it more widely than violet and red hues do. Reason being, air molecules are smaller than the wavelengths of sunlight and shorter wavelengths scatter more strongly compared to longer ones – known as Rayleigh scattering effect. The…
At day, the sky appears blue because light is scattered by air molecules; this occurs more with wavelengths of blue light than with any other hues. Tyndall came up with this solution by shining a beam of white light through a tank filled with clear water containing small particles suspended in it. He found that…
Mercury is the sole planet in our Solar System without any moons due to its small size and weak gravity; too small for supporting one, plus closeness to the Sun makes survival of such bodies impossible. Its egg-shaped orbit lasts 88 Earth days and it may approach as close as 29 million miles to the…
People commonly associate blue with feelings of openness, stability and order – no wonder it has become so popular for corporate logos and apparel! When sunlight strikes the atmosphere, its wavelengths disperse in all directions – more efficiently for shorter wavelengths such as violet and blue which gives the sky its distinctive hue. The Sun…
Have you ever noticed the gorgeous sky this week and wondered why its hue is blue? Well, it all boils down to some science involving physics and chemistry. Sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere is scattered by airborne particles and molecules, particularly gas molecules. Shorter wavelengths of light scatter more easily than longer ones, hence making…
As sunlight passes through Earth’s atmosphere, its light is scattered by gases and particles – particularly blue wavelengths which tend to be dispersed more efficiently than other colors resulting in beams with bluish tints. Scientists had difficulty pinpointing why the sky appears blue. Its color can be explained by how small molecules scatter sunlight. Sunlight…
On Tuesday morning, astronomy enthusiasts from Asia, Australia and North America witnessed the Moon slowly become darker until its full eclipse became visible; otherwise known as a blood moon. This event would mark the last total lunar eclipse until 2025. An appearance of a blood moon occurs when direct sunlight is blocked and its light…
People often mistakenly believe that the sky’s hue comes from ocean waves; however, this is incorrect: its hue results from how atmospheric molecules scatter light and reflect it back onto Earth’s surface. Light passing through the atmosphere tends to scatter more readily in blue and violet wavelengths due to their frequencies being closer to those…
Answer: Oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the atmosphere scatter sunlight incoming, with blue wavelengths being scattered more often than red ones resulting in the sky appearing bluer than usual. But this explanation doesn’t explain why the sky doesn’t turn violet at sunset or why Martian skies have an earth-tone hue; that is because sunlight must…
