The sun has turned BLUE over Britain – but there’s a simple explanation

Science
By William

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  • Photos of the blue sun flooded X (formerly Twitter) this morning
  • The unusual color is nothing to worry about and there is a simple explanation
  • Did you see it? Email your photos to shivali.best@mailonline.co.uk

By Shivali Best for Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

Skygazers across Britain were shocked this morning when they looked up to find the sun had turned blue.

Photos of the bizarre phenomenon have flooded X (formerly Twitter), with one bewildered user writing: ‘Gosh, never seen a blue sun before!’

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about the unusual shade and there is a simple explanation.

Speaking to MailOnline, Dan Harris, deputy chief forecaster at the Met Office, explained: ‘We have a strong westerly influence on our weather at the moment and this could bring air all the way from North America to Europe, locked into our weather systems.

β€œThis air currently contains smoke from Canadian wildfires. A combination of smoke and high clouds in the atmosphere can scatter sunlight, causing unusual color shifts.”

Skygazers across Britain were shocked this morning when they looked up to find the sun had turned blue

Photos of the bizarre phenomenon have flooded X (formerly Twitter), with one bewildered user writing: 'Gosh, never seen a blue sun before!'

Photos of the bizarre phenomenon have flooded X (formerly Twitter), with one bewildered user writing: ‘Gosh, never seen a blue sun before!’

Several confused users took to X this morning to talk about the blue sun.

‘Gosh, I’ve never seen a blue sun before!’ wrote one user.

‘I remember the dark orange and red of the sun when Ophelia 2017 Portuguese bushfires swept through Britain… why is it blue this time?’

β€œWe have an eerie blue sun over Twickenham today,” another tweeted.

In response, Chris Page, ITV’s weather presenter, explained what was happening.

“I get a lot of questions about the sun looking eerily blue today,” he said.

‘It is the power of wildfire smoke that disperses the sunlight that has been swept from North America across the Atlantic Ocean by Storm Agnes.’

Each visible color has a different wavelength.

“Violet has the shortest wavelength, about 380 nanometers, and red has the longest wavelength, about 700 nanometers,” NASA explains.

As it travels toward Earth, sunlight naturally scatters off airborne particles such as dust and smoke.

The shorter the wavelengths, the more easily the light is scattered.

This explains why the sky is blue.

Several confused users took to X this morning to talk about the blue sun. 'Gosh, I've never seen a blue sun before!' wrote one user

Several confused users took to X this morning to talk about the blue sun. ‘Gosh, I’ve never seen a blue sun before!’ wrote one user

β€œWe saw spectacular images of the ever-changing colors of the sun and sky this morning,” the Met Office tweeted. 'This is due to a mixture of Canadian Wildfire smoke and high clouds scattering sunlight over Britain'

β€œWe saw spectacular images of the ever-changing colors of the sun and sky this morning,” the Met Office tweeted. ‘This is due to a mixture of Canadian Wildfire smoke and high clouds scattering sunlight over Britain’

And with more smoke in the atmosphere – as is the case after the forest fires in Canada – it causes more scattering, making even the sun appear blue.

This isn’t the first time this has happened.

In 1950, the sun shone blue over Ontario cities and towns following the Chinchaga Firestorm – one of the largest wildfires ever recorded in North America.

More often the moon can be seen in two unusual shades.

During a lunar eclipse, the moon can turn blood red, while in very rare circumstances you can even see it bluish.

This would only happen if you looked at the moon through a haze of dust particles in our atmosphere, perhaps from a recent volcanic eruption.

ANIMALS SEE THROUGH COMPLEX STRUCTURES IN THEIR EYES

Animals, including humans, have a variety of complex structures in their eyes that allow them to see.

The pupil contracts to limit how much light comes in, just like a camera lens.

Most animals have both cones and rods in their eyes, these are called photoreceptors and are located in the retina.

Cones allow people to see colors and rods are sensitive to low light, allowing for a gray scale between black and white.

Humans, and many other animals, have three types of cones, each absorbing a different wavelength of light.

With short, medium and long wavelength cones, the range of cones provides a range of vision that spans the visible light spectrum.

This includes colors between red and blue – wavelengths ranging between 390 and 700 nm.

Other species, including many birds, have four cones instead of three in a mutation known as tertrachromacy.

This allows animals to see light with an unusually short wavelength, which is normally considered UV light.

These photoreceptors are activated by light and this produces an electrical signal as they change shape.

Electrical signals are then transported to the brain via the optic nerve.

Signals from both optic nerves are then brought together by the brain at a point called the optic chiasm, where the brain compares the two images.

This is what gives animals insight into depth and how far objects are in their field of view.

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