OtterKnow Kids EncyclopediaHave you ever wondered why the sky is blue? It is because of the way sunlight plays with the air around Earth! Sunlight may look white, but it is actually made up of all the colors of the rainbow mixed together.
When sunlight enters our atmosphere, it bumps into tiny bits of gas in the air. Blue light bounces around more than any other color because it travels in shorter, smaller waves. All that bouncing blue light spreads across the sky, making it look blue! At sunset, the light passes through more air, and the blue scatters away, leaving orange and red.
- On the Moon, the sky is always black because there is no air to scatter light.
- On Mars, the sky looks pinkish-red because of all the dust in the air.
- If Earth had no atmosphere, our sky would be black even during the daytime!
