00:03Sunsets are easily one of planet Earth's most beautiful, albeit regular, spectacles.
00:07With red, orange, and pink skies enrapturing humanity's eye for thousands of years.
00:11But have you ever wondered why the sky turns such wonderful colors as the sun goes down?
00:16Or when it comes up, for that matter?
00:17When the sun sets or rises, it's visibly lower in the sky.
00:20As it gets closer and closer to the horizon, you're not just seeing the sun through the atmosphere that's directly
00:25above you, like at, say, high noon.
00:27You're also seeing it through the atmosphere that's between you and the horizon.
00:30Adding both the atmospheric height of the area wherever the sun appears to be,
00:34plus an extra few miles of atmosphere between you and the horizon itself.
00:38But that's only half the story.
00:39The real cause lies in the wavelengths of light itself.
00:42Blue light is better at bouncing off molecules floating in the air due to its shorter wavelengths.
00:46Meanwhile, red light isn't because its wavelengths are longer, meaning blue light scatters more easily.
00:51And that's why the sky most often appears blue.
00:53But when the sun is setting or rising, the muted beams of light generally have longer wavelengths, meaning blue light
00:59is scattered out of your sight lines,
01:01giving us those spectacular red, pink, and orange colored skies.
01:04You're personally seeing that blue light is also being elevated over to the eyes.
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