Why is the sky blue?

Cosmos Magazine

Cosmos

Cosmos is a quarterly science magazine. We aim to inspire curiosity in ‘The Science of Everything’ and make the world of science accessible to everyone.

By Cosmos

What colour is the sky? The answer isn’t as straightforward as you’d think.

Your inclination might be to say that the sky is blue. And you wouldn’t be incorrect to do that.

After all, when you look up in the daytime, it’s hard to argue the sky appears anything but blue.

But how do we explain the fact that, at night, we can see the stars?

And why, at sunset, does the sky appear red or yellow on the horizon?

It must have something to do with the sun and on this episode of Huh? Science Explained, we look at how light from the big burning ball at the centre of our solar system determines what colour we see in the sky.

Huh? Science Explained is a LiSTNR production.

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