Why is the Sky Blue, But Space is Black?

Have you ever wondered why the sky looks so beautiful in blue and the space, more often than not, frightening in black?

A Union University report specifies that almost all people love seeing the blue sky on a "crisp, cool autumn day." And, as early as 1500, Leonardo da Vinci was already trying to explain the color of the sky.

His notebooks have shown how he monitored sunlight that passed through wood smoke, which suggested he understood the basic occurrence of scattering light.

Even though the entire physical explanation of why the sky is blue is complex due to the length limitations, such a report focuses on the main mechanism.

Why the Sky is Blue

According to NASA Science's Space Place, sunlight reaches the atmosphere of Earth and is "scattered in all directions" by all the particles and gases in the air.

Essentially, blue light is scattered more compared to the other colors as if it's traveling as shorter, tinier waves. It is the reason most of the time, we see a blue sky.

During the 1870s, Lord Rayleigh, an English scientist, weighed in with part of this explanation. However, to understand such a rationale, there is a need to know two things about how light is perceived.

First, all colors of the noticeable sunlight, from short-wave violet color to blue, green, yellow, orange, and the long-wave red, are released by the sun, although not in equal amounts. The most prominent color in the noticeable range is blue.

Second, the eyes can identify green light better compared to other colors, and they perceive blue light quite well. When mixed, all colors of the visible light appear white before our eyes.

Why the Space is Black

On the moon or in space, the atmosphere does not exist to scatter light. The light coming from the sun travels a straight line minus scattering, and all the colors stay together.

Looking in the direction of the sun, we, therefore, see a brilliant white light, and while we look away, there we see the space's darkness.

Because there is virtually nothing to scatter in space or re-radiate the light to the eye, no part of the light and the sky appear to be in black.

A Planets for Kids report specified that space does have cosmic dust and gas. However, there is no atmosphere. Light travels in a straight line until something gets hit by it.

Once the light hits and bounces off something, the atmosphere allows the "scattering," and the capability to see colors in the spectrum seen by the eyes. The surrounded space looks black as there is not as strong enough atmosphere to cause the scattering.

On this planet, there is sun near the Earth, and it provides an excellent level of light for humans to see everything around them in beautiful colors.

Then, during the night, we all see darkness as the sunlight is gone. Therefore, it can be assumed that when there is no light, there is darkness. Essentially, the sun is like many of the stars seen at night. Each of these stars is a type of sun in its sight.

Related information about why the sky is blue is shown on NASA Space Place's YouTube video below:

Check out more news and information on Space in Science Times.