Why does the Sun appear red, green, orange, blue, and white?
Our eyes can only detect a small amount of light we call “visible light”. When a scientific instrument takes a picture of the Sun, it can detect light our eyes cannot see. When people want to look at those pictures, they need to color them to a color their eyes can detect. So scientists pick a bright color that would never be confused with viewing the Sun in white light. So when see a picture of a neon green or bright red Sun, the image was actually taken in some non-see able version of light such as extreme ultraviolet or X-rays. It is hard for many people to admit that the Sun is white, so they sometimes color pictures of the Sun taken in visible or “white” light to look more like something we would expect. Also the Sun appears to be yellow to us based on the atmosphere.
Fun Fact:
If you asked a kindergartner in the USA and a kindergartner in Japan to both color a picture of the Sun, the kindergartner in the USA would normally make it yellow, while the kindergartner in Japan would normally color it red. This does not mean the two kindergartners are color-blind. Due to the fact that the two kindergartners are in different locations, the sun will appear to be a different color. |