Looking into water, objects are visually displaced by light refraction.
Similarly, looking out of water from within also produces refraction.
Is this entirely because of the refraction by water, or does atmosphere produce its own refraction? Are we evolved to perceive our atmosphere as “clear,” but if an alien from a planet with a different atmosphere came to earth, would they be thrown by our atmosphere’s unique refraction? Or are the gases that make up our atmosphere non-refractory?
If we could somehow survive (and see) in the vacuum of space, would all objects appear visually displaced, like they would looking into water?
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The refraction happens when you change from a medium of one refractive index to another. So it is not the air or the water creating the refraction but both, or rather the difference between them. Vaccuum have a refractive index of 1, air is 1.000293 while water have a refractive index of 1.333. So it is this difference in refractive index which produce the refraction you observe. The refractive index of air does depend on the temperature and humidity so you can see refraction between different layers of air with different temperatures. This is what causes the wavy look of hot air. As for humans we are adapted to the refractive index of air in that our eyes depend on the refraction as light goes from air into our eyes to focus the light onto our retinas. This does not work well in water which have a different refractive index causing us to see blury. Animals which have adapted to seeing under water have similar issues as they come up on land.
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