Why do we have coloured sunsets?
Coloured sunsets happen when light is scattered by dust and water particles in the air, as the Sun sets. At sunset, the light passes through a much greater thickness of air, because it strikes the atmosphere at a shallow angle. The farther the light has to pass through the air, the more likely it is to be scattered by the dust particles, causing the red colouration.
Why does the Sun rise in the east?
The direction of the Earth’s rotation means that the Sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west. If you imagine that you are standing at the North Pole and looking down on the Earth, it would rotate anti clockwise. In other words, the Earth rotates towards the east, so the Sun first becomes visible from that direction.
What is the Earth’s axis?
The Earth’s axis is an imaginary line through the geographic centre of the Earth about which it spins. You can think of the axis as being like a stick pushed through the middle of an orange. The axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degree from the vertical, in relation to the Sun. We still do not know the reason for this tilt.
