Surprisingly, the answer has little to do with a lack of light. ... Recall that Earth's sky is blue because molecules that make up the atmosphere, including nitrogen and oxygen, scatter a lot of visible light's component blue and violet wavelengths from the sun in all directions, including toward our eyes.

Does Earth have a glow?

On the nightside of Earth, green light is the brightest and occurs when oxygen atoms become excited through collisions with oxygen atoms. A variety of other complex reactions create red and blue light, as well as UV and infrared light that are invisible to the human eye.

Why does the earth have light?

Sunlight reaches Earth's atmosphere and is scattered in all directions by all the gases and particles in the air. Blue light is scattered in all directions by the tiny molecules of air in Earth's atmosphere. Blue is scattered more than other colors because it travels as shorter, smaller waves.