What is glow?

Glow is when something shines without needing to be touched by light.

Imagine you have a flashlight, it needs batteries to work. But if you have a glowing toy, like a night-light, it doesn’t need anything else, it just shines on its own. That’s glow!

Glow happens when something inside the object gets excited and starts sending out light. Think of it like a party in a tiny room, everyone is dancing and flashing lights everywhere, and you can see it from outside.

Some things glow because they have special parts that absorb light during the day and then release it at night. Like how your favorite glow-in-the-dark stickers work, they’re like little dancers inside a sticker!

• A firefly glows in the dark because it has tiny lights inside its body.
• Some shells on the beach glow when you turn off the lights, just like your favorite glow-in-the-dark stickers.

Glow is like having a little light show inside something, and it doesn’t need anything else to shine!