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Why the sky is blue

AS light passes through the atmosphere, most of the longer wavelengths pass straight through, making the sky appear blue. Little of the red, orange and yellow light is affected by the air.

Much of the shorter wavelength light is absorbed by the gas molecules. The absorbed blue light gets radiated in different directions. At whichever direction you look, some of this scattered blue light reaches you. Since you see the blue light from everywhere overhead, the sky looks blue.

n As the sun begins to set, the light must travel farther through the atmosphere before it gets to you. More of the light is reflected and scattered. As less light reaches you directly, the sun appears less bright. The colour of the sun itself appears to change, first to orange and then to red. This is because more of the short wavelength blues and greens are now scattered.

— Compiled by Gaurav Sood