Re: Why does the sky turn red?

Visible sunlight comes in all the colors of the rainbow.
The light that shines directly down from the Sun on us
appears yellowish white (CAUTION:  NEVER LOOK DIRECTLY
AT THE SUN!).  However, some sunlight reaches our atmo-
sphere and is reflected off of dust and gas molecules,
and is scattered back TOWARD people on the Earth's surface.
The dust and gas is better at scattering blue light than
red:  that is the why the sky usually appears blue, since
it comes back to us, and the red light escapes into space.

However, near sunrise and sunset, if you look toward the
horizon (especially near the Sun), the sky gradually appears
more and more yellow, and finally red.  What you are seeing
is now the OPPOSITE:  you see light that ISN'T scattered,
and it appears red.  Near the horizon, you are looking through
a lot of dust and gas, and much more blue light is thus
scattered AWAY from us.