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Why Is The Sky Blue

The sky appears blue because sunlight is scattered in the atmosphere by air molecules and particles. Blue light has shorter wavelengths than other colors and is scattered more readily when it encounters the tiny molecules in air. This scattering process causes the blue tones we see in the daytime sky. Closer to the horizon, more scattering occurs which mixes the colors, making the sky appear whiter or lighter blue. A red sunset occurs because at lower elevations, more blue light has been scattered away, allowing reds and yellows to dominate the view. The color of other planetary skies depends on the composition of their atmospheres and what particles are present to scatter incoming sunlight.

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2K views3 pages

Why Is The Sky Blue

The sky appears blue because sunlight is scattered in the atmosphere by air molecules and particles. Blue light has shorter wavelengths than other colors and is scattered more readily when it encounters the tiny molecules in air. This scattering process causes the blue tones we see in the daytime sky. Closer to the horizon, more scattering occurs which mixes the colors, making the sky appear whiter or lighter blue. A red sunset occurs because at lower elevations, more blue light has been scattered away, allowing reds and yellows to dominate the view. The color of other planetary skies depends on the composition of their atmospheres and what particles are present to scatter incoming sunlight.

Uploaded by

Moe Myint Myat
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Why Is the Sky Blue?

The Short Answer:

Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and
particles in the air. Blue light is scattered more than the other colors because it travels as
shorter, smaller waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

It's easy to see that the sky is blue. Have you ever
wondered why?
The light from the Sun looks white. But it is really made up of all the colors of the rainbow.

When white light shines through a prism, the light is separated into all its colors. A prism is a
specially shaped crystal.Like energy passing through the ocean, light energy travels in waves,
too. Some light travels in short, "choppy" waves. Other light travels in long, lazy waves. Blue
light waves are shorter than red light waves.

All light travels in a straight line unless something gets in the way and does one of these
things:—reflect it (like a mirror)
bend it (like a prism)
or scatter it (like ​molecules​ of the gases in the atmosphere)
Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is ​scattered​ in all directions by all the gases and
particles in the air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's
atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller
waves. This is why we see a blue sky most of the time.

Closer to the horizon, the sky fades to a lighter blue or white. The sunlight reaching us from low
in the sky has passed through even more air than the sunlight reaching us from overhead. As
the sunlight has passed through all this air, the air molecules have ​scattered​ and ​re​scattered
the blue light ​many times​ in ​many directions​.

Also, the surface of Earth has ​reflected​ and ​scattered​ the light. All this scattering mixes the
colors together again so we see more white and less blue.

What makes a red sunset?


As the Sun gets lower in the sky, its light is passing through more of the atmosphere to reach
you. Even more of the blue light is scattered, allowing the reds and yellows to pass straight
through to your eyes.

Sometimes the whole western sky seems to glow. The sky appears red because small particles
of dust, pollution, or other aerosols also scatter blue light, leaving more purely red and yellow
light to go through the atmosphere.

Is the sky blue on other planets, too?


It all depends on what’s in the atmosphere! For example, Mars has a very thin atmosphere
made mostly of carbon dioxide and filled with fine dust particles. These fine particles scatter
light differently than the gases and particles in Earth’s atmosphere.

Photos from NASA’s rovers and landers on Mars have shown us that at sunset there is actually
the opposite of what you’d experience on Earth. During the daytime, the Martian sky takes on
an orange or reddish color. But as the Sun sets, the sky around the Sun begins to take on a
blue-gray tone.

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