As the sun begins to set, it appears lower in the sky. This means the light must travel through a thicker layer of atmosphere to reach your eyes. Along this longer path, most of the shorter blue and violet wavelengths are scattered out and away. What remains are the longer wavelengths—red, orange, and pink. These […]
Rainbows happen when sunlight meets water droplets in the air, usually after a rain shower. These droplets act like tiny prisms. When sunlight enters a droplet, it bends (or refracts), then reflects off the back of the droplet, and bends again as it exits. This bending and bouncing separates the light into different colors. Each […]
The sky appears blue because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering. Sunlight may look white, but it’s actually made of different colors—just like a rainbow. Each color of light travels in waves, and blue light has shorter, smaller waves compared to other colors. When sunlight hits the Earth’s atmosphere, these shorter blue waves are scattered […]
Clouds are made up of millions of tiny water droplets or ice crystals that are incredibly light. These droplets are so small that they can stay suspended in the air, almost like mist. They don’t fall straight down because the air around them is also moving, especially upward. Warm air rises from the Earth’s surface […]