We’ve all heard it… an atomic blast is brighter than the sun.
So, if one went off at night would it turn the sky blue?
We’ve all heard it… an atomic blast is brighter than the sun.
So, if one went off at night would it turn the sky blue?
No.
The blue sky is the refracted and dispersed light coming from outside the atmosphere, through the atmosphere. An atomic explosion would produce reflected light back from the atmosphere. (I guess an over-the-horizon explosion might light the sky in that direction blue, briefly, but I wouldn’t count on it.)
Another issue would be the source of the light. While the sun is an ongoing nuclear reaction, it is not necessarily the same thing as a nuclear explosion. I’m not sure what frequency of light is generated by one or the other. That could affect the spectrum of light to be filtered in the air.
(1) but not from 93,000,000 miles away!
(2) I would guess no. Close to the explosion would be blinding white. Away from the explosion, and the light would be attenuated like any other earthly light source. Also, the initial flash would be too brief to change the color of the sky (you would probably just see the red/black of the fireball, etc.)
What’s interesting about this question is that, when nuclear material reaches criticality, there is a characteristic blue flash. Here’s an interesting website:http://www.execpc.com/~wirch/nuclear.html
The spectrum of the (visible) light from a nuclear explosion is primarily dependent on the temperature, not the details of the reaction. To a first approximation it is the blackbody spectrum of that temperature. The surface of the sun is roughly 6000 degrees, IIRC, much lower than the temp of a nuclear reaction. However, what you see glowing in a bomb blast is not the reaction products themselves but the atmosphere that has been superheated by the reaction. I don’t know what temperature it would reach but I suppose it would be about the same order of magnitude.
At any rate, both the sun and the explosion would give off large amounts of light across the entire visible spectrum. I think (but I’m guessing) that the light from a nuclear explosion would be scattered just the same, making the surrounding sky blue. I think you don’t really see this because of the intensity of the light. When you look right at the sun you don’t see blue because your photoreceptors are swamped. My guess is any observers would be dazzled by the bright light and never detect the faint blueness surrounding the fireball.