BlueWhy Is the Sky Blue

Have you ever looked up and wondered why the sky isn’t green or purple, but blue The answer lies in a scientific phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. When sunlight enters Earth’s atmosphere, it’s made up of different colors of light each with different wavelengths. The shorter wavelengths, like blue and violet, scatter more easily when they hit molecules in the air. However, our eyes are more sensitive to blue light than violet, so the sky appears blue to us during the day.

What Happens at Sunrise and Sunset

At sunrise and sunset, the sky often turns beautiful shades of red, orange, and pink but why When the sun is low on the horizon, its light has to travel through more of Earth’s atmosphere. Most of the blue light gets scattered out of view, leaving the longer wavelengths like red and orange to dominate the sky. That’s why sunsets look so different from the midday sky it’s still Rayleigh scattering at work, just with a different effect because of the sun’s angle. Shutdown123