Glowing animals
There are over 180 kinds of fish that can glow. The fish may glow as a way of talking to other fish deep down in the sea where there's very little light.
Here are some animals that can glow.
A swell shark
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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A yellow-spotted stingray
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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A scorpion devilfish
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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An Atlantic blue tang
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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A goby (say go be)
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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A frogfish
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Original photo has been cropped. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
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These glowing animals have special skin. The skin can absorb light and turn it into different colours. The colours are often red, orange or green.
The animals need blue light to make them glow.
The animals need blue light to make them glow.
What is blue light?
Blue light is part of sunlight. Sunlight is made up of all the colours of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet). These colours mixed together appear white.
A prism can split light into its different colours.
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When sunlight moves through water the different coloured light moves at different speeds. The blue light in sunlight moves through the water the best. This is why blue light can reach creatures deep down in the sea.
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To see a rainbow, you must have the sun shining behind you and raindrops in front of you. The different colours of light split up when sunlight shines inside the raindrops.