Blue has long been thought of as making the sky appear clear and blue, but this effect is actually caused by gases and particles in our atmosphere. They scatter shorter wavelengths such as blue light more readily than their redder counterparts, producing that hue.
Many people believe the ocean’s hue reflects the sky, but in reality its color comes from absorbing red wavelengths like a filter.
Colors of the Sky
Have you ever stood beneath a blue sky, gazing upon its clouds passing overhead and wondering why it appears so blue? While the answer to this question lies within particle physics and atmospheric chemistry – there is more involved here than meets the eye!
Why is the sky blue? Because of how light refracts through our atmosphere. Since our Earth’s atmosphere consists of gases and particles of various sizes that scatter or refract light differently, when white sunlight passes through it can scatter blue and violet wavelengths more than others – which your eyes interpret as its blue color.
As for why the ocean is blue, its colour lies in similar scattering and refraction processes to those seen in the sky. Water molecules tend to absorb or scatter shorter wavelengths more readily than longer ones – your eyes perceive these absorption or scattering processes as blue hues in the ocean’s hue.
People often think the ocean’s blue color comes from reflecting its reflection in the sky; however, this is only partially true. While its surface may reflect this hue from above, this only accounts for part of why its waters appear blue – most of its shade comes from being an extremely dense body of water; dense bodies absorb more light than lighter bodies so your eye cannot see through all of it at once.
Sea and ocean floors contain sediment and other materials that impart certain hues to them, and also absorb or reflect light; though their effects on light absorption or scattering is minimal compared with that seen from sky and ocean surfaces.
The color of the sky may alter due to various atmospheric conditions such as dust or pollution levels, water vapor levels and other elements which affect light absorption and scattering. Meanwhile, ocean colors are dependent upon environmental conditions like sandbars or the presence of mud or algae blooms.
Colors of the Ocean
People often assume that oceans and seas reflect the blue hue of the sky, but this is not entirely accurate. Instead, their color arises due to how water molecules absorb and scatter light. Water molecules tend to absorb wavelengths with longer wavelengths (reds, oranges, and yellows) more efficiently than short wavelengths such as blue. When sunlight hits the ocean it is mostly absorbed by its waters while only blue light reverberates back towards us.
The same process that causes ocean waters to be blue also plays an integral part in creating blue skies on other planets, though they might lack water bodies themselves. Although their skies might look different due to different atmospheres without gases that scatter light rays.
Note that ocean does not actually absorb red, orange and yellow light as much as it appears; that is because absorption occurs within the water itself rather than at the surface level. Most areas of ocean remain dark due to almost no light penetrating deeper than 650 feet while any visible light cannot reach depths greater than 1000 meters (3280 feet).
Ideally, the ocean would appear much greener or yellower due to how its molecules absorb and scatter light, yet due to how water molecules absorb and scatter light it appears bluer than expected. As water molecules absorb different wavelengths of sunlight they change color throughout the day – providing ample opportunities for variations.
Remember that when you see the ocean in certain colors, it is due to how the sunlight illuminates it. Therefore, its color can change significantly depending on the amount of sunlight hitting its surface; greener or yellower depending on how much sun there is reaching it. Furthermore, impurities like sand or algae may scatter and absorb light differently and alter its natural hue significantly.
Colors of the Earth
People often mistakenly believe that oceans are blue because they reflect the hue of the sky, although this is partially true. Instead, oceans become bluer due to absorbing red-tinged wavelengths, leaving only blue wavelengths behind for us to perceive. Although their exact hue may depend on factors like amounts of mud and algae present; such impurities may scatter light in various directions giving certain parts of the sea an overall greenish or reddish tint.
The color of our planet Earth varies with each season, depending on how much sunlight and warmth reach its surface. When there is ample sun exposure, its surface can appear whiter or even yellow due to sunlight passing through a variety of gases and particles in our atmosphere before reaching our eyes. On the contrary, when there is little or no sun light available, Earth may appear much darker.
At first glimpse from space, Earth appeared very dim. Apollo 8 astronauts captured this photograph as Earth was approaching the Moon in December 1968.
One of the defining moments in human history was captured using a camera using film; these photographs may not have been of high-quality but nonetheless captured the beauty of planet earth.
Apollo 8 crew could never have predicted that Earth would appear so vibrantly blue from space. This color comes from our planet being mostly covered with water as well as our atmosphere and molecules of water molecules present on its surface.
Without water, our planet would likely appear much redder. This is because sunlight would pass through much more atmosphere before reaching our eyes, scattering blue and green wavelengths while leaving behind red and orange wavelengths that we perceive today.
Colors of the Sun
One popular belief about why the Sun appears blue is that it reflects off of ocean waters; this is only partially accurate. Instead, seawater absorbs different wavelengths of light differently from glass water – long wavelengths being absorbed while shorter ones reflected back; hence why glassed water appears blue while in an open sea it might look clear.
At sunrise or sunset, when the Sun is nearer the horizon its light must penetrate more of the atmosphere than when it is above it, forcing its light through a thicker layer of atmospheric gases which makes its light seem redder or orange; this phenomenon is called Rayleigh scattering.
This same process gives the sky its blue hue: when sunlight passes through the atmosphere it gets scattered more diffusely than other colors; blue wavelengths tend to get scattered more readily than others and this causes shorter wavelengths of blue light to reflect off particles in the air, giving us the impression of a blue sky.
However, this doesn’t explain why the Sun occasionally appears green. This is due to atmospheric pollution; when combined with pollution-laden particles from smoke or dust-laden environments on Earth, pollution-saturated atmospheres may make for less-than-ideal conditions causing the Sun to look an indistinct hue of red or yellow.
As it consumes its remaining fuel, the Sun’s appearance changes further as its remaining energy is burned off. Over time, it will eventually transform into a white dwarf and devour inner rocky planets of our Solar System with redder radiation from its core; eventually this phase ends as well as it cools further and turns whitish-blue coloration.
People often use red filters when taking photographs of the Sun in order to make it appear more like a star. This is because although it emits all colors evenly from its visible spectrum, when photographed it can look reddish if there is pollution or smoke present in the air.