8/3/2019 Blue Sky Tech Writing

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Andy Le

Hr. 2

Some people may believe the sky is blue because of the reflection of the ocean, but that is simply

a joke. For many years scientists have been struggling to find the reason why blue happens to be the color

of the sky on a beautiful day or why the horizon is red and yellow during a radiant sunset. This mainly

depends upon how the light from the sun reacts with Earths atmosphere. Understanding this concept can

help scientists figure out why objects appears the color they are.

What is Light?

To understand blue skies and red sunsets, you know what light is. Light is basically energy passing

through waves known as electromagnetic waves. The human eye may see light as a white color, but it is

technically made up of a combination of colors. Each color has a slightly different wavelength of the wave

and the amount of frequency. Wavelength gets longer to shorter from a range of red to blue. This small

portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is called visible light. A perfect example is when the Sun emitswhite light to Earths Atmosphere giving it a specific color.

Why is the sky blue?

The sky gives off a blue color due to how it reacts with the molecules in the atmosphere. Earthsatmosphere is mainly made up of oxygen and nitrogen gasses. As the Suns lights passes through

atmosphere it must come in contact with the individual molecules. Molecules absorb light waves based

upon their different wavelengths. After being absorbed the molecules will release the same light that isabsorbed into different directions. So molecules will absorb waves with higher frequencies more affectively

rather than lower frequencies. While more of the molecules are absorbed and reflected by the bluer light,red light is able to pass through the molecules. Since the atmosphere reflects blue more affectively than red

thats why the sky appears to be blue.

Why are sunsets red?

Sunsets will mostly occur out in the horizon which is the point when the sun is lowest in the sky.

Because of this the Suns light will have to travel through more molecules within the atmosphere than mid-

day. Oxygen molecules will absorb all the blue light allowing longer wavelength red lights to easily passthrough completely. But different amounts of energy and wavelengths absorbed by atmosphere depends

directly upon the kind of molecule. Therefore, while more blue light is scattered through more space, red is

all that is seen to the human eye.

Overall, the reason why the sky looks the way they are is because of the different wavelengths the

molecules absorb. Knowing the properties of light waves can help explain why they behave the was they do

in the atmosphere. Astronomers can use this information to find the affects light waves has on theatmospheres of other far distant planets which can help identify the composition of the atmosphere. Such

studies can gives indications as to whether or not life is possible outside our world.