Why do we see "rays" of sunlight?

Question

Kids draw the sun with "rays", when we screw our eyes up to look at the sun, we see distinct lines coming out of the sun, and in reflections, the sun always has "rays" making it look star-shaped. Why is that when the sun is a ball of energy and surely the light from it should be constant / consistent / even?

Answer 1

I don't really know the first part of your question. But as for the sun being a ball of energy.. that is the reason why the light from it is NOT constant / consistent / even ... the sun is constantly flaring and exploding, creating a very uneven source of light, due to the fact that it's just basically one big constant explosion... when was the last time you saw an even explosion?

On earth, we only pick up a little bit of the light that comes off the sun...

Answer 2

I think that the "rays" which the sun is usually shown as having around it and the starring effects seen when we look at or photograph points of reflected sunlight come from diffraction. This is probably because, to look at the sun or a bright reflection of it, you need to squint or use a small aperture on a camera. As both of these present a small opening, the light diffracts around the edges of the obstruction (I'm not completely sure why - maybe something to do with the waves slowing down like in refraction?).

This starring should not be visible/not as visible if not squinting (not very clever) or if a wider aperture is used (again probably not a great idea) as diffraction depends on the size of the opening compared with the wavelength of the waves passing through it (light's wavelenght is very small and so the opening has to be small also). Looking at photos of the sun taken with very dark filters, it looks round and has no rays coming off it, although this could be that these filters cut out the other radiation coming out of it (I don't know).

However, I'm not 100% sure about these ideas but they may help.

Answer 3

Of course, what you always 'see' are photons from the sun that are in fact tiny packets of mass-less energy traveling at the speed of light. Pure sunlight includes all the colors of the spectrum and is pure white. Shadows form when some of the photons are blocked. The color of sunlight can change to red if passed at a great angle through more atmosphere (at sunrise and sunset) selectively filtering out certain wavelengths leaving red. Sun rays appear when the light is brighter in some paths relative to others as passing through a hole in a cloud or through a patch of rain or snow. Reflection from particles in the atmosphere (rain, snow or dust) can create a distinct ray. Light rays can be bent by water and squinting your eyes likely thickens the water on your pupil. Light can also bend around small objects like your eyelashes distorting the path of the sun's rays.

Answer 4

The light from the sun is virtually constant in all directions. But we can only see the light that gets to our eyes. Anything that directs the light toward or away from our eyes will affect our experience. In the case of rays shining through the clouds, the clouds block part of the sunlight and the light that gets through bounces off of dust and water vapor, producing a contrast with the shaded areas.

As for the symmetrical rays we see in photographs or by squinting at the sun, these are caused by the optics of the lenses in the camera, a compromise betweeen light-gathering ability and acurate rendering of the image, or by the arrangement of our eyelashes as they deflect extra photons that would otherwise miss our retinas.

When the sun shines through woven fabric, you can sometimes see a four-ray "cross" pattern, caused by extra reflection from the fibers exactly perpendicular to the sum's image.

The same kind of process is involved in rainbows, sun dogs, moon rings and the like. Light is diverted, either by reflection or refraction, from its original path to create the illusion that extra light is coming from somewhere other than its source.

Answer 5

Although the sun does give off big "flames" known as flares, these are not visible from Earth, except during total eclipses, because they are very faint compared with the brightness of the sun. So the sun can indeed be considered to be a constant source of light.

Light rays in the sy are caused by holes in the clouds. The light shines down through the hole in a straight line, illuminating dust and water vapour along a straight path.

The lines you see coming out of the sun when you screw up your eyes are due to optical defects in the lenses of your eyes.

Answer 6

Several of the answers below refer to the "crepuscular rays" which are the apparent rays of light seen streaming through clouds or at sunset (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepuscular_rays). What I think you are asking is why we see a starring effect when you glance at the sun or when you look at sunlight reflected off water.
I believe this is down to the optics of our eyes (or camera) in response to a very high contrast (you will see it with streetlights against a dark sky too). I don't know the exact physics involved but logic says that rays or light (or photons) radiating out around the side of a lightsouce would be invisible to us unless they hit something that reflected/refracted them toward our eye - so it is unlikley that this is what we are actually seeing and more likely it is our eye/eyelashes/camera lens causing the effect.
see here http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnlinwood/384628483/

Answer 7

The vapor canopy (Prima Altohydrosphere) existed "before" the Flood; it was a cosmocataclysmic event that precipitated the Flood that collapsed the canopy. The vapor canopy encapsulated the whole Earth and formed during the coalescing of the Earth from a "plasmosphere". It was suspended 10 miles above the Earth and was roughly 1 mile thick composed of frozen H2O, carbon, nitrogen and other trace elements. It compressed the atmosphere creating a 30% oxygen concentrate plus a 300% higher geomagnetic amplitude, resulting in the phenomenon of “gigantism” (giantism) and long longevity of life. This is why humans (**** giganticus), dinosaurs and plants where enormous, in fact, this was the norm for the whole contemporaneous pool of life of the Antediluvium Edenic Earth. The Prima Altohydrosphere is not factored into the equations of conventional scientists attempts to decipher how life began, thus their results are incomplete. Additionally, our Sun was not our paternal star; it was Sirius B when it was a Blue Supergiant, a B-1 class star about 5 times the solar mass of our Sun and 75 times its intensity. Hence, life emerged on Earth via irradiation of the primordial seas by the intense stellar radiation from Sirius B in collaboration with the ionized effect of the Prima Altohydrosphere (this is relayed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead), mutually generating a “Geocrucible Effect”, much like a pressure cooker. Thus, life emerged from a “polybiological explosion” (“Spontaneous Polybiological Mass Profusionism” [SPMP] in which the entire genetic species pool of life was contemporaneous. Originally, the sea level of the Earth was 3,000 feet lower than it is today resulting in more land. Russian marine biologist, Dr. Pauline Zelinski, discovered via sonar mapping a vast metropolis off the west coast of Cuba in the Yucatan Strait that confirms this lower sea level; the metropolis is located at around 2,800 feet below sea level, and it obviously predates known history, since the sea level was merely 145 feet at it lowest during the last Ice Age. So the advance civilization that constructed this metropolis is pre-Ice Age. This also infers that our concept of “linear” civilization is inaccurate, and rather that civilization is cyclic.

Answer 8

At a guess it depends on the density of the atmosphere.
You have seen shafts of light break through in gaps in cloud.
It's also to do with the time of day,
midday the light the is stronger.
It's also about how much rubbish, dust, pollution etc
is in the air as well.
The sun also gives off more light at certain times than others, mass coronal ejections (bursts of Light) go on all the time.

Answer 9

rays are reflections of sunlight off of particles in the atmosphere mainly dust and water vapor but sometimes gasses like ozone etc.

Answer 10

photons of visible light are continous streams, it varies only in as to how and the way the observer views it