Sky

The sky is the appearance of the atmosphere around the surface of the planet from our point of view. We see many objects that are actually in space such as the Sun, the Moon, and stars because they are in the sky. On a clear day the sky appears blue.

Physics 

At night, it appears from very dark blue to black. The deepness of the blue increases as we look toward the horizon, and up to the point above us. The sky, which is made up of gas molecules, is blue because of the random scattering of sunlight by the molecules.

Rayleigh scattering

Rayleigh scattering defines the amount of scattering of light rays. Blue light scatters much more than red, which is why the sky appears blue on a clear day. Depending on the time of day, the sky may appear different colors. At sunrise or sunset, the sky may appear red, orange and other colors depending on how low the sun is and how close it is to night.  




Many objects can be seen in the sky. There are objects from space like the Sun, Moon, planets and stars. There are also many weather events seen in the sky. For example, these can be fog, clouds, rain or lightning. Weather is caused by different patterns and temperatures in the atmosphere. Other things that can be seen in the sky are birds, other flying animals, and aircraft.

Solar System

Other planets have skies too. Because the types of gases in their atmospheres are different, they have different sky colors. For example, the sky on Mars is pink.

Related pages

 Weather
 Atmosphere
 Atomic physics
 Atmospheric chemistry
 Environmental chemistry

Other websites

 Day Sky Images 
 Night Sky Images 
 Sky Photo Gallery 
 Why is the sky blue?

References

Category:Physics
Category:Chemistry
Category:Atmosphere
Category:Basic English 850 words