Post #1951712

2026-05-04 00:20 UTC

is the sky blue because of oxygen or because of blue shift this question pertains to how one would accurately portray the sky in atmospheres comprised of different chemical makeups

Replies (1)

@rfc6214@mk.absturztau.be 2026-05-04 02:52

@rpmrosie Oxygen is much more relevant than blue shift - it's mainly Rayleigh scattering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayleigh_scattering) plus the fact that we see blue much more strongly than purple.The strong wavelength dependence of the Rayleigh scattering (~λ−4) means that shorter (blue) wavelengths are scattered more strongly than longer (red) wavelengths. This results in the indirect blue and violet light coming from all regions of the sky. The human eye responds to this wavelength combination as if it were a combination of blue and white light.There's some fancy formulas that you could maybe use to calculate depending on the properties of the atmosphere and its associated sun if you're good at maths. But there's other factors too - I believe Mars has a reddish orange sky because it's mostly dust.

Open ##1951785