Why does the sky appear. Discover why the sky looks dark or black to an astronaut in space, unlike the blue sky on Earth. Learn about the role of the atmosphere and light scattering.
The sky appears dark instead of blue to an astronaut because of the absence of Earth's atmosphere in space. The blue colour of the sky on Earth is due to Rayleigh scattering, where molecules in the atmosphere scatter sunlight, especially the shorter blue wavelengths. In space, without an atmosphere to scatter sunlight, the sky lacks this blue coloration and appears dark, revealing the vast.
During the Apollo missions, astronauts reported that the sky seen from the lunar surface was completely black, despite the bright Sun in the sky, simply because the Moon has no atmosphere. On Earth, at the top of high mountains like Everest, the sky also appears darker blue than at lower altitudes: there are fewer air molecules to scatter sunlight. The sky appears black to an astronaut, because there is no atmosphere in space to scatter the light from the sun.
The sky appears dark (or black) to an astronaut instead of blue because there is no atmosphere containing air molecules in outer space to scatter sunlight. Explain giving reason why the sky appears blue to an observer from the surface of the earth? What will the colour of the sky be for an astronaut staying in the international space station orbiting the earth? Justify your answer giving reason. When sunlight passes through the atmosphere, the fine particles in air scatter the blue colour (shorter wavelengths) more strongly than red.
The scattered blue light enters our eyes and the sky appears blue. But there are no particles, hence no scattering of light in space. Therefore, the sky appear dark to an astronaut.
The sky does not appear blue to an astronaut because there is no atmosphere in the space and hence the light does not scatter into the various colours as like when we see the colours of sun or sky from the earth. If there is no scattering occurs, the sky will look dark to the astronaut from the space. The blue color of the sky is due to scattering of light from the atmosphere.
Because there is no atmosphere in space, light does not scatter into its constituent colors, so an astronaut in space sees the sky as dark (black) rather than blue. Thus, the sky appear to an astronaut is Dark (Black).