Why is the sky blue during the day and red during sunsets?

The sky changes colors because light travels through Earth’s air and gets scattered by tiny bits of stuff we can’t see.

Light is like a rainbow made of many colors, and sunlight has all those colors mixed together. During the day, when the sun is high up, its light has to travel a shorter path through the air before reaching us. The blue part of the light gets scattered more easily by the tiny bits in the air, so we see blue all around us.

At sunset, the sun is low on the horizon, and its light has to travel a much longer path through the air. As it travels farther, most of the blue and green colors get scattered away, leaving the red and orange colors to reach our eyes. That’s why the sky looks red or orange during sunsets, it's like when you shine a flashlight through a glass of water; the light that comes out is more red because the blue light got absorbed or scattered on the way.

So next time you see a beautiful sunset, imagine tiny bits in the air helping to paint the sky with warm colors!