Abstract
Why is the sky blue? This seemingly simple question has become so common on physics tests that it doesn’t frighten students anymore. While it’s easy for a layman to understand, it is not easy to answer. In fact, a detailed answer is not simple, but requires knowledge of atomic and molecular physics. The blue color of the sky is caused by the scattering of light off air particles, or the splitting of a directed light beam in other directions. This fact has been known for a long time, but interestingly, the scattering depends on the color of the light. Blue light is more strongly scattered than green or red, and so blue light is distributed over the entire daytime sky, while all other colors are mostly allowed to transmit directly through the atmosphere. The scattering of the blue light is so strong that considerable amounts of intense sunlight are spread across the sky, rather than reaching the ground. The light of the stars is outshined by the scattered sunlight and the stars are therefore obscured during the day.
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Notes
- 1.
Some people claim that the stars on the moon should have had a different position in the sky than on Earth and astronomers should have noticed this if they had been seen. This is not correct in view of the fact that the stars in the sky are several billion times further away from Earth than the moon.
- 2.
It is exactly this William of Occam, by the way, that is the model for the novel character of William of Baskerville in the book The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.
- 3.
The principle is not directly found in Occam’s writings. The term “Occam’s razor” for the principle of economy was first formulated in the 19th century by mathematician William Rowan Hamilton.
- 4.
Sensitive digital cameras were used for such sequences. Examples of films at night from Earth orbit, all with stars in the sky, can be found at http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov
- 5.
Most Moon landing deniers claim Armstrong never gave any interviews. But that is not true! On the internet, you can find a host of public appearances by Armstrong, including various interviews.
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Eversberg, T. (2019). Stars are Missing in the Sky. In: The Moon Hoax?. Science and Fiction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05460-1_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05460-1_4
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