Investigate natural phenomena, hypothetical timelines, space, and deep mysteries.
Rayleigh scattering causes shorter blue wavelengths of light to scatter in all directions when striking air molecules.
Sunlight appears white, but it contains all colors of the rainbow. When sunlight reaches Earth’s atmosphere, gas molecules (nitrogen and oxygen) scatter the light. Because blue light travels as shorter, smaller waves, it scatters much more than red or yellow wavelengths!
At sunset, sunlight passes through much more atmosphere, scattering away the blue light and letting red/orange wavelengths pass straight through to your eyes.