If the sky is blue, why is space black?

Answer 1

The sky is blue because the air in the earth's atmosphere scatters the light from the sun. As the light passes through the atmosphere, it bounces off the molecules of oxygen, nitrogen, water vapor, etc. that make up the atmosphere. The blue light bounces around the most, so by the time it gets to your eye it has changed direction so many times that it may look like it's coming from anywhere. That's why the whole sky looks blue.

In space, there is no atmosphere, so there's no scattering and no filtering effect. The light travels straight from the source to your eye.

Answer 2

The name for the process that makes the sky blue is Rayleigh scattering, named after Lord Rayleigh, a British scientist, who described it. Any answers here that do not refer to scattering are wrong.

Deep space appears to be black but an astronomer friend assures me that the colour of deep space is dark red.

Answer 3

the sky is just basically layers and layers of air at different densities. out of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the sky absorbs red, orange, yellow, green and purple but reflects blue because of its specific wavelength and frequency. however, space is black because it contains nothing.....no air, no water....its like a void...an empty space. therefore, it absorbs all colours and appears black.
however, now scientists are talking about 'dark matter' which is probably a different kind of matter (never seen on earth before) which absorbs all light without reflecting any kind either. therefore, since it doesnt reflect any light, it appears black and is hard to distinguish from a void (or an empty space).

Answer 4

The sky is blue because that is the color of our atmosphere. Seriously, air appears transparent, but if enough of it is accumulated, you see how the accumulated molecules of Nitrogen, Oxygen, etc., filter all but the blue end of the spectrum. You will see this same effect under a glacier viewing the successive layers of ice, which also will appear blue.
Space, on the other hand, having no matter to it, has no color either: black.

Answer 5

Because there is no air/atmosphere in space. It's the atmosphere that scatters blue light from sunlight. On the moon, where there is no air, the sky is black even in the daytime.

Answer 6

The atmosphere scatters sunlight. The lower energy "red" frequencies are scattered more (That's why sunsets are red.) so the sky looks blue. On the side of the Earth opposite the sun, there's no light to scatter.

The other question to ask is, it there are a near infinite number of stars in a near infinite number of directions from us, why isn't the night sky completely white?

Answer 7

Its caused by the layering of the ozone with paricals of water ,vapor. Space appears black due to absent of light.

Answer 8

That's the same of like why are some people white, and the other black?

Answer 9

blue is the color of deception. the ocean is blue, but if you travel further into it it becomes black as well.

Answer 10

the lack of light