Why do i see this when looking into the sky?

Question

On a sunny day whilst looking up I see some white dots that look like water ripples and they swirl etc..

The same thing happens when looking out a plane window. I got some people to do this, it works for them too.

Why can you see this, what is it? O.o

Answer 1

im always curious about that too but finally i just thought that it was just my eyes until you had the same situation as me wow! so its not just my eye that can see them your can too

Answer 2

wow cool ive never seen that before

Answer 3

its normal..something to do with your eyes and the way your brain perceives light, etc.

Answer 4

I've got floaters too, had them since I was a kid.  They can be kind of annoying, but sometimes they help relieve boredom :)

Answer 5

Could it be the sunlight does something to your eye? Or perhaps its something on the surface of the eye.

Answer 6

I have them too. Distracting aren't they? ;)

Answer 7

hi. first of all, dont worry abt it. It is just something got to do with your brain perceive the image and light that your eye see. its hard to explain but its actually normal for anyone to experience this. Some people notice this more than others do. It maybe something that is called the blue field entopic phenomenon or Scheerer's phenomenon.

hope this helps  :)

Answer 8

The sky is polarized, as any bee will eagerly tell you. Humans (with the possible exception of the Vikings) only discovered this in 1809 thanks to Arago. Sixty years later John Tyndall demonstrated how this happens with his famous and beautiful light-shinning-through-cloudy-matter experiments. Both the polarization and the colors of the sky are created by light "scattering", the technical word for light that is "bounced" in random directions by matter.

     In general, the sky is polarized tangential to a circle centered in the sun and maximum polarization is found at ninety degrees from it. Therefore, with the sun close to the zenith the sky will be polarized horizontally along the entire horizon. On the other hand, when the sun is setting West, the sky will be maximally polarized along the meridian and thus vertically at the horizon due North and South. Towards the zenith just after sunset (or before sunrise) the degree of polarization of the sky can reach its maximum of about 75% in very clear days. Don't forget to test these facts using your polarized sunglasses next time you sunbathe on a tropical beach (a vacation-friendly non-strenuous activity).

     Why scatter can polarize light?

Scatter happens because a photon excites an electron that absorbs its energy and vibrates, and this vibration re-radiates like an antenna a new photon in a random direction. The direction of the electron vibration is the same as the direction of the electric field of the incident photon. Conversely, the radiated photon has the electric field aligned with the direction of the electron vibration.

     Light is a transversal wave what means that the electric field "vibrates" perpendicularly to the direction of the beam. If the incident light is unpolarized, the electric field vibrates in every direction in a plane perpendicular to the beam. The electron of the scattering molecule will also vibrate confined to that plane. But if the plane is seen from the side, the vibrations appear to be confined to a line, as shown in this animation. Therefore, light scattered backwards (or forward) remains unpolarized, while light scattered at 90 degrees becomes linearly polarized (in intermediate directions it is partially polarized).

     Now, it is important to realize that if a photon is scattered multiple times instead of just once before it reaches the observer, its polarization becomes random.  The reason is that each scattering event is in a random 3D direction and therefore the final polarization also becomes random.

      If the air were completely transparent, we would be able to see the stars during the day (nice!) but there would be no visible "sky" (not so nice). This is the same reason why you have to blow smoke on a laser beam to see it from the side. The sky tends to look sky-blue because the shorter (blue) wavelengths are more likely to be scattered than the longer (red) ones by the much smaller air molecules ("Rayleigh scattering"). Contrary to the Little Red Riding Hood tale, being dressed blue puts the photon at higher risk of interception before reaching home.

     But if your are looking through a lot of air (i.e. at the horizon) or when there are other larger particles (e.g. pollution) that are much more efficient scatterers than the air molecules, longer (redder) wavelengths are also likely to be scattered towards you. At the same time, there is a higher chance that blue light is scattered  a second time on its way to your eyes, limiting the increase of its contribution. The end result is that the sky will loose some of it color saturation and become more whitish.

     Therefore, skylight colors that reach your eye have different pedigree. The blue lineage is more likely to have been scattered multiple times than does the red part of the spectrum. As multiple scatterings destroy the polarization of light, blue light is less polarized than other colors in skylight.

     Thus, by aligning a polarizer so it blocks the polarization of the sky its blue color is enhanced (but darkened).  Photographers frequently use polarized filters on their cameras to capture skies that look more saturated than to the unaided eye.  

     This fisheye photograph (hi-res) of the full sky at sunset was kindly provided by Forrest Mims of electronics authoring fame.  He took it from his South-Central Texas Observatory using a polarizing filter aligned East-West. The roughly North-South line of dark blue sky shows where polarization was at its maximum. As the title of that country-western song not yet written says: "the skies of Texas are bluest for the cowboy with sunglasses and no blues to sing."

Answer 9

As someone once said, "Whenever I look through a telescope, I see worms" They are called "floaters" and are there from birth.

Answer 10

Get the captain and ask him to open the window so you can see the white dots close-up.

Answer 11

It could be a number of things, i am just guessing:

1. Imperfections in the way the sensors in the back of you eye transfer signals to your brain.

2. Imperfections in the liquid on your eye to stop it drying, e.g. small bits of dirt which interferes with the focusing of the light entering your eye.

3. Heat haze, such as when you look along a hot road and see a mist.

Do the ripples speed up or slow down when you blink/avoid blinking? Do you see more of less ripples higher in the air?

Answer 12

same thing happens to me too.  I believe it has to do with how the eye percieves light but I could be wrong.  I would sugguest you try to ask an eye specialyst.

Answer 13

They're bubbles in the liquid in you're eyes.

Answer 14

I see these 24/7 every day for every moment of my life but most especially at night. I have noticed that when I focus energy into my hand they often gather and swirl there, like a flame. I don;t know what they are, but they are either attracted to energy or they are energy. I know someone who once saw these things form the shape of a lion and move about the room in this form for a while. I generally see them in most things spiritually related and they often denote the presence of an invisible being.

Answer 15

Those are marks from your iris at your eyes.

Those shapes change with the years but basically they are scratches and some are veins.

Answer 16

They are probably organisms that are swimming around on the surface of your eye.

Either that...or CLOUDS.

Answer 17

They are called floaters and can increase with age.

Answer 18

We've had this question several times before !  The white dots you can see are white blood cells in the back of your eye. It's called the "blue field entoptic phenomenon".  Check out the following link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_field_...

Answer 19

its floaters on the front of your eye. try to look rite at one and watch it 'swim away'. the long winter nights will simply fly by.

Answer 20

a) dust

b) organisms in the clouds

c) stars

d) white dwarfs

e) universes

P.S. if you answered true to c,d, or e, you must have like 50/20 eyesight, which i think is really good

Answer 21

they are clouds!

Answer 22

i get that too, mentalness innit

Answer 23

Thats chi,also known as prana.

It fills the universe and space.

Some people work with chi,as it helps to strengthen

the body.

Its all around us.