Featured Image Credit: Javier Zayas Photography/Getty Images
People have been left mind-blown after discovering what the ‘real color’ of the sun is.
While it might sound like an obvious answer, it turns out the brightest star in our solar system doesn’t actually give off the yellow hue you’d expect.
There has been a huge spike in solar activity in recent months as the sun has reached its solar maximum.
At the center of our solar system, the sun emits a range of wavelengths that we can visualize as colors.
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The peak wavelength generally determines what the star’s color actually is, meaning that stars vary in color.
Hotter stars will appear blue, while cooler stars will seem red but when it comes to the sun, it actually peaks at a green wavelength.
However, that doesn’t mean that the sun is green to the human eye, of course, instead the existence of other wavelengths from the sun makes it appear white.
In order for us to see it as green then the sun would need to emit only green wavelengths.
So, why does the sun look yellow?
This is because the Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t scatter red light as efficiently as blue light.
This revelation has left a lot of people stunned, with many taking to social media to share their own reactions.
On Reddit, one user wrote: “This is such a basic thing. Education is getting really bad. No, the sun is not yellow and never has been. It’s yellow when you draw with crayons in 3rd grade. That’s it.”
Another said: “Technically any color is the right answer.The sun’s color gets filtered through our atmosphere, making it look yellow. So purely from the perspective from Earth, the sun is seen as yellow.
“If you’d look at a solar eclipse, the dark glasses sometimes have a green or dark blue hue. It’s the same principle. The sun’s colored light gets filtered through those glasses, making them appear green or blue at that point.
“From space though, the sunlight does not get filtered by anything, and therefore seems white.”
A third person commented: “If the sun is any colour other than white, it would be green, because it has a little bit more of that than any of the others.”
This prompted a query from one user, who said: “I wonder if this is why most plants are green.”
Another responded with an explanation, writing: “Plants are green because red and blue wavelengths of light are more efficient for photosynthesis, and thus only those are absorbed. Green is reflected (most of the time); therefore, plants display green most commonly!”
Pretty cool!
