The phenomenon behind a colorful sky.
How many sunset sky photos are there on your phone?
Where do those colors come from?
Eiji Ogura/EyeEm/Getty Images
Why does a setting sun look orange?
Light is made up of lots of different wavelengths, which is why we see color.
Bluer light more easily bounces off molecules in the air, while redder light doesn’t.
That’s because bluer light has shorter wavelengths while redder light has longer wavelengths.
The blue light gets more easily scattered,which is why the sky is blue.
Meanwhile, the blue light is scattered out of your line of sight.
The exact same thing happens during a sunrise.
The phenomenon of scattering is also why the sky turns red, orange, and pink at sunset.
Crucially, you need some cloud to see this.
If the clouds aren’t there, there’s nothing for the colored light to reflect off.
Why isn’t the sky violet?
If short-wavelength blue light gets scattered then the sky should be violet, not blue.
That’s because violet light has the shortest wavelength of all.
It’s just that human vision doesn’t perceive violet too well, the sky appears blue.
Why does a rising full moon look orange?
It’s for the same reason as why the setting sun looks orange.
The moon doesn’t give off any light of its own, but only reflects sunlight.
However, when you see its light you’re still looking through a lot of Earth’s atmosphere.
So bluer light is scattered and redder light is not.
Why does a ‘Blood Moon’ look red?
A “Blood Moon” the colloquial name for a total lunar eclipse is thought of as being red.
For example, after forest fires or an ash-spewing volcano.
Earth has a shadow in space and it’s red.
Why does Mars have blue sunsets?
Sunsets on Mars are blue.
That’s because the Red Planet has a reddish sky during the day.
Again the color is connected to the scattering of light by particles,according to NASA Science.
Since the particles in the dusty Martian atmosphere scatter red light, the sky is reddish.
So during a sunset there’s a bluish glow in the sky above the sun.
