English: The explanation for the reddish tints seen in the sky at either end of the day lies in Rayleigh scattering. As it passes through layers in the atmosphere, light with shorter wavelengths is scattered more than light with longer wavelengths.

Without sunlight, we would not only be in darkness, but the world would also be completely devoid of colour. As a general rule, sunlight appears to us as a pale whitish-yellow, but it is actually made up of the whole spectrum of colours visible to the human eye – literally, all the colours of the rainbow.

The coloured components of the Sun’s light becomes visible when it is broken up as a result of refraction and scattering in the atmosphere. During the day, the sky is predominantly blue because many different solid and gaseous particles in the atmosphere scatter the sunlight in a particular way.

The British physicist Lord Rayleigh (1842–1919) was the first to come up with a conclusive explanation of the sky’s blue colour – which is why the phenomenon is known as Rayleigh scattering.