this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Most of the more exotic colors (such as green) are caused by various optical tricks.
Physically speaking, all true stars are roughly one of these colors:
The exact color of a star depends on its size/temperature. Red stars are the coolest, while blue stars are the hottest.
There are in fact no green stars at all. At least not to human eyes. Very cool and interesting stuff.
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/why-arent-there-any-green-stars
So not only are we the goldilocks of planet position in the solar system, we are also the goldilocks of star temperature?
No, the sun is actually white. It looks yellow(or red, when closer to the horizon) for the same reason the sky looks blue, rayleigh scattering.
Had we evolved under a red star, I'm pretty sure we'd be saying our star was "white". We have eyes which were optimised for the frequency spectra of our star.
I assume it's all relative, right? We could just as easily say there are hotness 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The question was, is ours perfect at a 3? And the answer was actually ours is a 4. If our star was a 1 and we evolved under that, I don't think it would change our perspective on the different hotness levels. A 4 would still be a 4.
The sun is a yellow star. It just looks white to us.
No, it is a yellow dwarf, which has nothing at all to do with the color of the sun and everything to do with the mass,temp and fusion properties of the star.
Color wise though, it doesn't just look white to us, it IS white. Snow is white because it's reflecting sunlight, which is also why polar bear fur is white, and it's why rainbows show all visible colors, because the sunlight they're formed from contains all visible wavelengths, aka white.
Yes. It's a yellow star that emits white light, not a white star.
Okay? How is that relevant then, when we're specifically talking about the color of stars, not their classification?
Are most of those colors present in the visible sky?
Most of them, yes. The reddest stars (like Proxima Centauri) are too cool and dim to be visible to the naked eye, but if you go somewhere with no light pollution and let your eyes adjust you should be able to perceive some differences between stars.