What would happen if there were no dust?
[ 2006-03-23 11:45 ]
 Most of us who have ever cleaned a house would be
much happier if there were less dust.
However, without dust there would be less rainfall and
sunsets would be less beautiful.
Rain is formed when water molecules in the air collect
around particles of dust. When the collected water becomes
heavy enough the water droplet falls to the earth as rain.
Thus water vapor could be much less likely to turn to rain
without the dust particles.
The water vapor and dust particles also serve to reflect
the rays of the sun. At sunrise and sunset, when the sun is
below the horizon, the dust and water vapor molecules reflect
the longer, red, wavelengths of light such that we can see
them for more time (starting earlier in the case of sunrise
and lasting longer in the case of sunset) than any of the
other wavelengths. The more dust particles in the air the more
colorful the sunrise or sunset. |
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