The Perfect Sunset

[Trish]

Contrary to appearances, the landscape is not on fire. "This is just a cloudy sunset over open countryside in France," says Patrice Arnaudet, who took the picture on July 13th using a Canon 350D digital camera. "There was no fire."

Blame the trickery on Rayleigh scattering. Tiny particles in the air, including air molecules themselves, scatter blue light more so than red. When the sun sets, so much blue is scattered, the remaining rays can become extremely reddened. In Arnaudet's photo, Rayleigh-scattered sunbeams are painting the clouds the color of wildfire.

"Wildfires" are only one of the sun's many tricks. Go outside at the end of the day and look west; can you believe your eyes?