Learn what color the Sun is and why it appears different colors from Space, the Earth, and in photographs. 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. The color of the sun is so much more than what it appears to be to the naked eye.
The atmosphere, as well as our distance away from the sun, may change the way we view it. Sun looking reddish during the sunset (Credits: Kirshelena/Shutterstock) Color Of The Sun In Space If 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.
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. 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 Sun is yellow, right? Turns out it's not that simple.
What colour the Sun is depends on how you observe it, and from where. Here are all the visible colors of the Sun, produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism -like device. The spectrum was created at the McMath-Pierce Solar Observatory and shows, first off, that although our white -appearing Sun emits light of nearly every color, it appears brightest in yellow.
Sun's Light Spectrum The sun in space isn't the yellow ball we often imagine. Above Earth's atmosphere, it shines as a blinding white orb. This phenomenon is rooted in the science of light and color.
Sunlight is a mixture of all colors in the visible spectrum. When these colors blend, they create what we perceive as white. A prism demonstrates this by breaking sunlight into a rainbow.
The Sun: Our Bright and Blinding Star Understanding the Electromagnetic Spectrum Atmospheric Scattering: Why the Sky is Blue (and the Sun is Yellow) Observing the Sun from Space: A Different Perspective Color Perception and Temperature Misconceptions About the Sun's Color Frequently Asked Questions What is the spectrum of light that the sun.