Sky facts for kids

The daytime sky with trees.

The sky is what we call the appearance of a hemisphere over our heads. On a clear day it appears blue. The deepness of the blue increases as we look toward the horizon, and up to the point above us.

The sky, which is made up of gas molecules, is blue because of the random scattering of sunlight by the molecules. Rayleigh scattering defines the amount of scattering of light rays. Since all colors of the rainbow create a white light we should see a white sky, but blue light scatters much more than red. That is why the sky appears blue (on a cloudless day).

Images for kids

• 

  The sky above the clouds

• 

  A greater proportion of blue light scattered by the atmosphere relative to red light.

• 

  The crescent moon remains visible just moments before sunrise

• 

  Aurora borealis over Bear Lake, Alaska

• 

  The Milky Way can be seen as a large band across the night sky, and is distorted into an arch in this 360° panorama.

• 

  White cumulus clouds appeared over Dhaka, Bangladesh, when significant flooding was underway in many parts of the country.

• 

  Picture of the sky in the eye of a tropical cyclone

• 

  An F-117 Nighthawk stealth strike aircraft in flight

• 

  Massive clouds sweeping across the Mojave Desert

• 

  Summer sunset High Desert, California

• 

  Split sky just after sunset, High Desert, California

• 

  Violent sky during Electric storm at twilight in the California Mojave Desert.

• 

  The clouds reflect shadows at sunset, and fan them throughout the sky.

• 

  Sky with clouds in Lithuania, Dūdos (Village), Lithuania.