As They Might Be Giants might reming us, “The sun is a mass of incandescent gas / A gigantic nuclear furnace / Where hydrogen is built into helium / At a temperature of millions of degrees.” But what color is it? Yellow? Guess again. Here’s more from Science Focus:
The Sun emits light over a whole range of wavelengths (or colours). In fact, it does so in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, apart from gamma rays. The peak in the Sun’s spectrum can be used to derive its surface temperature, about 5,780 Kelvin (roughly 5,500°C). The same process can be used to establish the surface temperatures of the stars.
The peak wavelength in a spectrum also generally determines an object’s apparent colour. So, for example, cooler stars appear red and hotter stars appear blue, with orange, yellow and white stars in between. For the Sun, the spectrum actually peaks at a wavelength that we would normally describe as green.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
So… if the sun looks yellow to us here on earth due to the way the atmosphere scatters different light wavelengths, does that mean that the sun appears white to astronauts outside of our atmosphere? For example, did it appear white to those who walked on the moon?
So… if the sun looks yellow to us here on earth due to the way the atmosphere scatters different light wavelengths, does that mean that the sun appears white to astronauts outside of our atmosphere? For example, did it appear white to those who walked on the moon?