We'd see it as white, having evolved to see in that light

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And the "driving on the freeway on a scooter" analogy still holds true because the pilots are sitting in 7 to 30 ton aircraft o' doom and you are running around them in your very own Meatbody, Mark I. Beep, beep.
Trying to make sense of computers, The Error Log.

I like the quotes you gave as they are likely correct in arguing for a white sun. I did not find the web page you mentioned, however.

This is an interesting topic since many conflicting statements are found on various web sites regarding the Sun’s color. There are several threads here which deal with the subject besides this one, including my favorite… Sun’s Intrinsic Color .

Here, an instrument was invented to reconstruct the actual true spectral irradiance of the sun, as seen in space, in order to allow the eye to “see” it as it really is. Its lens system is not quite perfected enough to get all the restored light homogenized, but it does strongly suggest white, or possibly slightly bluish-white, is the true color. A solar astronomy class is using it this semester; so maybe good news will come from their work.

No doubt, evolution is the biggest process which describes how our eye developed. There are other interesting aspects of this, too. I stumbled onto an article showing that white tail deer have very sensitive blue color cones, possibly capable of seeing slightly into the uv band. Their evolutionary trail may be better, at least for them, as they should see things before sunrise far easier than we can – hunters be advised . Albeit, these deer can not see in the red or orange, and they have only two color cones compared to our three. They should see the sun as cyan or a little more greenish (combining blue and yellow); not that they would tell us. Of course, other critters have similar interesting eyesight.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

The Color of the Sun



Most people (even some astronomers, but not solar astronomers ) describe the sun as yellow. It is not. Snow is a pretty good reflector of all visible wavelengths; the sun is roughly the color of snow. Then why do people think it is yellow? Perhaps because it is hard ( indeed, dangerous!) to look at the sun when it is high in the sky. We can and often do look at the sun comfortably when it is low in the sky, and we see it through a long path of air, which scatters the short wavelengths out of the beam, allowing only the long ones to pass through. Consequently the sun, when seen low or setting, generally appears yellow, orange or red. Maybe it's just tradition to regard the sun as yellow. Still, it's white. from a web page color of the sun..
the sun is white-blue..nasa knows it.
ask the people who when up there..
but its so big of a mess..it will take years to get it right.
the sun is a white star. not yellow or green.
and it does not matter ..if you have a white star. putting a little yellow
will not make it yellow. it will be white..
putting blue or green will not make blue..it will look white.

here on earth..its white..at 12.00 noon in mid summer..its white.
its temp is white it does ot matter if its 5500 k or 6000k.
its all white. our eyes have nothing to do with it..

the yellow is a working color to vega.

ask any solar astronomer..

for all that nasa does its mess up.

you know.. you keep telling people its yellow ..they will start seeing yellow.

but the people up in space will tell you its verry verry bright white-blue.

nasa needs to re vamp all of the star colors..and the o.a.f.g.k.m.
that is out of date...and look at the stars by there real colors.

re vamp the h and r charts..make new ones with the right colors..

what a mess!!!

Color of Sun

Extensive cut-and-paste replaced with link by moderator:

Color of Sun

Massive cut-and-paste replaced with link by moderator:

Star color-details

Jon,

Please do not do massive cut-and-pastes from other websites as it's a copyright violation and could get us into legal trouble. The first one might not have been a problem as it's from a US government site, but the second one was definitely problematical - not to mention that the information on the second site is a lot easier to read when it's formatted as it is on their page, not when all the formatting is lost when it's pasted here.

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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.

There are many sites with similar answers, although the answers can vary from place to place.

The comment that the sun looks white as seen from space lacks some intersting aspects inherent in discovering the sun's true intrinsic color. The sun's intensity is so great at every color, the eye is overwhelmed and will conclude the sun must be white. If you could go into space and attenuate the flux, then the eye could ascertain its true color. An astronaut, when asked, said the sun was blinding white. Blinding is the correct term as the intensity blinds one's ability to see the true color.





Color is more of a subjective term to science. I can not think of a serious scientific equation where a term requires the observed color.

Nevertheless, it is a mystery and I like it!

You might like my semi-serious formulae for color determination found here .

If you will, take a quick glance at your midday sun and see if you can tell its color. Then go to a poll and let cast your view (pun intended). Thanks.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

well then why call it yellow..it gos back to the past..working colors.
at noon its white..in space its white-blue.
no one can get this right. solar astromoners will tell you its white.
this why it will never change..people want to see yellow.
look up and tell me its yellow.and if you see yelow you need to have your eyes look at.this is chazy..maybe in 100 years it will change.

color is a subjective to science.

ok..science likes to call the sun yellow.
call it black and white..

Ug. You just pointed out an obvious term I am missing in that colorful formula I referenced in the last post - the tradition of everyone calling it yellow.

There is a very cheap insturment you can make, which I call SAD (Solar Attenuation Device). It will allow you to reduce the intensity of direct sunlight in order to observe more accurately the sun's color. Take a paper plate, cut a very thin and clean slot about 2 cm's long, and several cm's from the outer rim. Penetrate the very center of the plate with the eraser end of a pencil without warping the plate (cutting the hole out perferably). Glue both sides of the plate and pencil junction. Spray paint the plate flat black. When glue has completely set, put the pencil in an electric drill. Aim it at the sun such that you observer the sun through the slot during fast rotation.

The SAD will help render the sun's color, but not its true intrinsic color as determined from space, and without all our atmospheric color depletions. Those that see it as yellow around midday should be surprised at how white it is instead.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

its true color in space is white to-blue..
as seen by the space shuttle crews.
with there dark gray sun glasss.
an on earth its white.all you do is look at the white clouds.
or make a hole in a paper let the white light hit a white paper..it looks white.
snow is white . your sad looks white.

now thuis time at 1200 noon.
it may look a little white-yellow.

i dont see it..and my eys are 20 20.
i am not color blind.

look at the sun through a telescope.

let the light hit a white paper.it is white.

that is why it is called a white light.

solor astronomers`take photos in white light. not yellow light.
so whats the matter with people .

they will say it white on paper and then say its yellow to ther eyes.
its the same light!

what a mess!

out in space it looks blue white as most blue light it hitting our eyes .

and makes at look whiter.

the suns is blue-white. not yellow.and never has been.
it all the press..and a mess up science.
jon

i take a lot photos..
and photo people and video people,
well tell you that at 12:00 noon on june 21..at 40 dreegs
that the suns color temp..is about 5500k this is very white to blue
very white.at sea lev. at 40,000 feet its 5,600k and verry white to blue
out in space its about and heres the big pont..its temp gos from 7,500k
to 6500k. whit to blue. as the black body says.

but they cant get this right..come on what a mess!!

Really! I would love to see their account. Can you link me to it?

All good points. However, the atmosphere does play with us, the sky is blue then yellow, orange, and red around sunset. Some clouds are pink and some stormy ones are green at times. So, questioning the sun's color has merit.

A slight majority around here will agree with you, based on the little poll results.

Since paper can be modified in color appearance, it could be argued modern paper is now white because that's what people purchase, and not the color it would appear if it reflected sunlight evenly across the spectrum.

The very best way to determine the sun's color, other than a SAD used in space, is to replicate the sun's spectral irradiance and observe it. This was done last summer thanks to BAUT folks here.

But it's a colorful one.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

ok so whats the color??in space.
and what color is the sun from earth to you.
i just want to know what you thank!

you thank its green.
ok i like green white.
as you will you never see that color.
and there are no green stars.
it will never happen.
they will go for yellow or white stars not green.
no matter ifyou can turn down the sun 99.99%
it will look white. its r g b as long as you got red blue green.
it will be white.pull out a little blue its white.
pull out a little red its white.

I've seen a red sun often enough to know you're completely wrong.

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Spread the Love!

I originally had hope that it was green, but after developing a device (SPACC), with the help of BAUT, to determine the sun's color, as found in this thread , the color is very likely white or bluish white.

Only if the propotions of r g b are about equal will white be seen. [Unless the r g b levels all exceed the eye's upper threshold, as it does when one is in space.] The sun in space radiates much more blue and green than red. However, out atmosphere greatly cuts down the blue and some greens, thus the balance produces a white appearance for us down here.

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Lighten up! This is a stellar board! Author: duh.

"The Sun, with all the planets revolving around it, and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as though it had nothing else in the universe to do..." Author: Galileo supposedly.

as i said its white to blue in space.
and a white on earth.
not yellow.
but we got to get a.
ll people to see it that way.
as they look up and see a yellow.

as you said that for most people its above ther heads.

as far as it looking red i hope its a sun set.

sorry to get so upset..but ..

it upsets me when i see it look yellow in mazs..and books.

they are telling people its that color..thats wrong.

it keeps this thing going.. i guess its hard to show it white on white paper.

my guess is they like it way.

but to the eye its white to blue..
a camara will see it white..now people
will see it white some will see a little blue.
can you turn the sun down?
to see the blue? so it gos back to white.
mybe at 4 au it might look a little blue?

i kown i am beeting a dead horse.