Question from a subscriber:
Hello. Our Sun is a yellow dwarf, but I read that it is actually white. Why is that so? And I also recently read that the Sun’s spectrum is dominated by the color green. Is this true? Why don’t we notice that?
This is a very interesting question. Let’s sort it out together.
What color is the Sun?
If you look up to the sky on a clear day and look at the Sun, the answer is obvious-the Sun looks yellow to you. It would seem that what is there to talk about?
However, it is not that simple. If we look at the Sun from a spacecraft, we see it already white. Why is this so? The fact is that the Earth’s atmosphere is not completely transparent to light. As it passes through the atmosphere, some of the light is absorbed and some is scattered. As a result, the light “turns yellow” and the Sun appears yellow to us.
If the Sun is white, why is it a “yellow dwarf”?
I have to say that the term “yellow dwarf” is a bit outdated. The fact is that many astronomical terms were invented when astronomy was just emerging and now terms such as “dwarf”, “giant”, “yellow”, “red”, “brown”, in relation to the color of the stars, not always correspond to reality, but continue to be used…
