Why is the sky blue?

This is the most common question most of us have heard of. The sky is blue in the morning and red in the evening. Why is that so? In this post, we will get to know about it!

In this image,  we can see that the sky is entirely blue with white clouds.

And in this image, we can see that the sky is reddish pink.

All these beautiful phenomena occur because of a specific reason. 

The sun is 93 million miles away from us. The light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach here. The light has to enter the atmosphere to reach us. We know that the atmosphere is composed of many gases and particles. 

These particles act as an obstacle for the light of the sun as it enters the atmosphere. They make the light to scatter here and there, resulting the light to appear blue. Wait, how does that happen? For that, we have to take a look at the light spectrum!

Have you seen a rainbow? Doesn't it look colourful? Rainbow is formed when waterdrops break the light of the sun into 7 colors. These 7 colors are all a part of white light. This means that white light can be split into these 7 colors. In these colors, red has the longest wavelength and violet has the shortest wavelength. 

Wait, what's a wavelength? Well, wavelength is related to waves and it requires its own blog later. So, let's come back.

The term used for white light and its splitting into 7 colors is called visible light spectrum.

Now, let's come back to skies. When the light is scattered, blue, which is the third color of the spectrum, and has a shorter wavelength, becomes visible. This is because blue light is scattered more than any other light. Then, why does the sky appear red in the evening?

This is because in the evenings, the sun seems to be farther away from us, and its light has to pass through a dustier part of the atmosphere. As a result, red light, the longest in the wavelength, manages to break into the atmosphere!

This is why the sky is blue!

Byee!!