Not the yellow hue you’ll find in your average school textbook. Show The Sun emits light over a whole range of wavelengths (or colours). In fact, it does so in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, apart from gamma rays. The peak in the Sun’s spectrum can be used to derive its surface temperature, about 5,780 Kelvin (roughly 5,500°C). The same process can be used to establish the surface temperatures of the stars. The peak wavelength in a spectrum also generally determines an object’s apparent colour. So, for example, cooler stars appear red and hotter stars appear blue, with orange, yellow and white stars in between. For the Sun, the spectrum actually peaks at a wavelength that we would normally describe as green. However, across the narrow range of the visible spectrum the amount of light emitted at each wavelength is almost exactly the same. But more crucially, the human eye doesn’t perceive light by averaging the various colours of the spectrum together. So, a very slight excess of green light doesn’t look green to the human eye – it looks white. The Sun would have to emit only green light for our eyes to perceive it as green. This means the actual colour of the Sun is white. So, why does it generally look yellow? This is because the Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light more efficiently than red light. This slight deficit in blue light means the eye perceives the colour of the Sun as yellow. More like thisThe more atmosphere the Sun’s light passes through, the more blue light is scattered. Hence, during sunrises and sunsets there is a much greater percentage of red light in the Sun’s spectrum, giving often spectacular results. Read more:
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On the other hand, colors like yellow, orange, and red are less easily scattered, giving the sun a yellowish appearance throughout the day and an orange / reddish hue near the horizon.  There is a strange play of physics of light scattering that affects the color, and then the marginal effects of smoke, dust, and pollution contribute to making the sun appear yellow most of the time. I was still sceptical even when I first realized that the sun wasn’t yellow. To the naked eye, the sun doesn’t appear as a white burning star. However, to experience this white color of the sun, one would have to overcome the earth’s atmosphere –
perhaps in the International Space Station (ISS)! Recommended Video for you: Does Earth come back to the same spot on your birthday? How the sun gets its colorThe light emitted by the sun, which is visible to us, is only a tiny part of the huge electromagnetic spectrum. This electromagnetic spectrum consists of a wide range of different waves, ranging from gamma rays to radio waves. Visible light in this electromagnetic spectrum lies somewhere in the middle and is only a tiny part of the entire spectrum. Electromagnetic spectrum from gamma rays to radio waves (Credits: AIexVector/Shutterstock) The entire spectrum of visible light emitted by the sun can best be seen through a prism. With a prism, sunlight can be broken down into its components – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. These colors, from violet to red, are abbreviated as VIBGYOR. Purple has the lowest wavelength, while red has the highest wavelength. If all these colors are combined, it forms a white color, which is the real color of the sun. Another way to experience the individual components of the sunlight is when there is a rainbow. You can then see a beautiful spectrum of the VIBGYOR colors of visible light. You can observe VIBGYOR, i.e., the constituent colors of visible light, when there is a rainbow How the Earth’s atmosphere distorts the color of sunlightThe reason why the sun appears yellow to us is the Earth’s atmosphere. When sunlight hits atmospheric particles, it causes electrons and protons to vibrate rapidly up and down, generating radiation at the same frequency as the incident light but emitting in all directions. This process of redirecting sunlight is called scattering. The Earth’s atmosphere scatters away light in the blue, indigo, and violet wavelength region more prominently, while higher wavelength colors like red, orange and yellow are scattered sparsely. Due to this incongruous scattering, the Sun appears yellow. This is also why the sky appears blue during the day, as the blue wavelength is the most scattered color from the visible light spectrum. Sun looking reddish during the sunset (Credits: Kirshelena/Shutterstock) Color of the Sun in SpaceIf you are lucky enough to make it to the International Space Station one day, you can see the actual white color of the sun because it is not distorted by our atmosphere. From space, the sun will appear like a huge white glowing sphere. Does the color of the sun really matter?Some of you may wonder if the color of the sun really makes a difference. Well, the color of the Sun is actually significant for astrophysicists. A technique called spectroscopy is used to split the spectrum of light coming from a given star. This is done because splitting can give clues about the characteristics of the star from which the light is emitted. It can help astronomers estimate if a star is made of heavier elements or lighter elements, determining its age and behavior patterns. Color also helps scientists estimate the temperature of a star. Contrary to intuition, cooler stars are actually colored red. Betelgeuse, a relatively cool star with about 3500 Degrees Kelvin, has a decidedly reddish color. Hotter stars, such as Rigel, which lie above 10,000 Degree Kelvin, appear bluish. Our sun is estimated at 5800 Degree Kelvin, and when viewed from outside the Earth’s atmosphere, it appears white. For eons, we lived with the idea that the color of the sun is yellow. In fact, we are so accustomed to the idea of a yellowish sun that astronomers often artificially alter the images of our white sun to make it appear more “natural”! Now that you know all this, next time a teacher asks you to draw a picture of the Sun, draw it in white instead. If you’re asked why your sun is not yellow, give a quick lesson about the atmosphere, the light, and the world around it! Test how well you know the color of the sun Can you answer three questions based on the article you just read? Suggested Reading
Was this article helpful? YesNo Help us make this article better Why sun looks yellow when it is really hot?The reason that the Sun looks yellow to us is because the Earth's atmosphere scatters higher wavelength colors, like red, orange and yellow less easily. Hence, these wavelengths are what we see, which is why the Sun appears yellow.
What color is the sun surface?The color of the sun is white. The sun emits all colors of the rainbow more or less evenly and in physics, we call this combination "white".
What does it mean when the sun is white?When we direct solar rays through a prism, we see all the colors of the rainbow come out the other end. That's to say we see all the colors that are visible to the human eye. "Therefore the sun is white," because white is made up of all the colors, Baird said.
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If the suns surface was hotter what color would we see
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