Why are sunrises and sunsets so colorful? The blue of our sky and the vivid oranges of sunrises and sunsets are caused by sunlight traveling through particles in the air. At sunrise or sunset, the light from the sun travels a longer path through the atmosphere, which removes most of the blue color of the sky, leaving the bright oranges and pinks that we see.
Isaac Newton discovered that “white light” was a combination of the colors of the rainbow. He used a prism to separate a ray of sunlight into a multitude of colors. This is an experiment you can do, using a prism or even a stream of water from a hose in the sunlight, to see the different colors of the rainbow.
The wavelengths of colors determine the varying colors of our days. Blue-ish colors have shorter wavelengths. Red-ish colors have longer wavelengths. So when the sunlight travels the longer path – or longer wavelength – in the mornings and evenings, we see those red-ish colors in the sky.
Learn more about colors, wavelengths, sunrises, and sunsets here:
1. Optics 4 Kids: https://www.optics4kids.org/what-is-optics/scattering/why-is-the-sky-blue-why-are-sunsets-red
2. Sunrise Facts for Kids: https://kids.kiddle.co/Sunrise
3. Sunrise Sunset PDF: https://www.frostscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Lesson-3-Sunrise-Sunset.pdf
4. Curious Kids Sunsets Sunrises: https://www.space.com/curious-kids-how-does-the-sun-make-such-pretty-colours-at-sunsets-and-sunrises
5. Sunrise Colors: https://mountwashington.org/why-is-sunrise-so-colorful
6. Paint a Sunrise! A demonstration of the painting above can be seen on my YouTube channel, Misty Glow Studio, at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jnmtiFb1_w Bright Orange Sunrise.
Try painting a sunrise or sunset you’ve seen!
Happy homeschooling!
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