The sun is white-kind of. It depends on your interpretation of color, the way colors work, the way our eyes see and, just as importantly, the air we see through. Learn what color the Sun is and why it appears different colors from Space, the Earth, and in photographs.
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.
The color of the sun reveals a range of information about our star including the stages of its life and how it interacts with the atmosphere of Earth. Discover the sun's surprising true color, the atmospheric science behind its yellow appearance, and its role in Earth's vibrant hues. The color of the sun is white.
The sun emits all colors of the rainbow in approximately equal amounts and we call this combination "white". That is why we can see so many different colors in the natural world under the illumination of sunlight. If sunlight were green, then everything outside would look green or would look dark.
The shorter wavelengths that make up the colours green, blue and violet get scattered more and give us the blue sky. The remaining yellow, orange and red wavelengths tend to travel straight through without getting scattered as much. The more atmosphere sunlight passes through, the more red it appears.
That's why we have red sunsets. 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.
Introduction Participants use scientific practices1 to investigate answers to simple questions such as what color is the Sun, why is the sky blue, what causes orange sunsets, and why is the ocean blue. It is as important for them to experience the process as to get the "right" answer. Think the Sun is yellow? Think again.
Discover the true color of our star and why it looks so different from Earth's surface.