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The blue sky spectrum contains light at all visible wavelengths with a broad maximum around 450–485 nm, the wavelengths of the color blue. Diffuse sky radiation is solar radiation reaching the Earth 's surface after having been scattered from the direct solar beam by molecules or particulates in the atmosphere .
The same elastic scattering processes cause the sky to be blue. The polarization is characterized at each wavelength by its degree of polarization, and orientation (the e-vector angle, or scattering angle). The polarization pattern of the sky is dependent on the celestial position of the Sun. While all scattered light is polarized to some ...
Rayleigh scattering causes the blue color of the daytime sky and the reddening of the Sun at sunset. Rayleigh scattering (/ ˈ r eɪ l i / RAY-lee) is the scattering or deflection of light, or other electromagnetic radiation, by particles with a size much smaller than the wavelength of the radiation.
Earth is a pale blue dot, rather than dark blue, because white light reflected by clouds combines with the scattered blue light. [ 22 ] Earth's reflectance spectrum from the far-ultraviolet to the near-infrared is unlike that of any other observed planet and is partially due to the presence of life on Earth. [ 22 ]
The atmosphere of Earth is composed of a layer of gas mixture that surrounds the Earth's planetary surface (both lands and oceans), known collectively as air, with variable quantities of suspended aerosols and particulates (which create weather features such as clouds and hazes), all retained by Earth's gravity.
The red light reaches the observer's eye, whereas the blue light is scattered out of the line of sight. Other colours in the sky, such as glowing skies at dusk and dawn. These are from additional particulate matter in the sky that scatter different colors at different angles. Halos, afterglows, coronas, polar stratospheric clouds, and sun dogs.
Reflection nebula are usually blue because the scattering is more efficient for blue light than red (this is the same scattering process that gives us blue skies and red sunsets). Reflection nebulae and emission nebulae are often seen together and are sometimes both referred to as diffuse nebulae. Some 500 reflection nebulae are known.
View of the night sky in July The day's blue sky, clouds and the Moon. The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.