Light from the sun travels through space to Earth's atmosphere. What will light waves do when they move from empty space into matter made up of different gases?

Question

Leah Angelini · Accepted Answer

They slow down, which may cause them to refract.

The speed of light in vacuum is the highest possible speed (according to Einstein). It's #~~300000km//sec# When light goes into a denser medium (and any medium is denser than vacuum) it slows down. For instance the speed in air is: #1/1.000293=99.97%# of this speed, which seems like almost the same, but it isn't quite so. In water it goes down to #~~75%# and in glass (depending on the sort of glass) to #2//3# or even #1//2# of the speed in vacuum. Diamond even reduces the speed to about #40%#. Since not all colors have the same retardation, red light tends to be bent less than violet, with the other colors of the spectrum somewhere in between. This causes rainbows in everyday life when light hits a boundary (vacuum to denser) at an angle.

Piper Hoffman · Answer

undefined When light waves move from empty space into matter made up of different gases, they will undergo refraction, scattering, and absorption. The extent to which each of these phenomena occurs depends on factors such as the composition and density of the gases in the atmosphere.