99
submitted 1 year ago by SnotBubble@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

While camping, I noticed that if you look long enough at almost any star, you start seeing some tiny, subtle colors in that star. Even crazier, they sometimes flicker between more colors. In my case orange, blue and something like cyan.

Besides constellations, what else could you observe regarding starts, with the naked eye?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 21 points 1 year ago

No, the sun is actually white. It looks yellow(or red, when closer to the horizon) for the same reason the sky looks blue, rayleigh scattering.

[-] wewbull@feddit.uk 6 points 1 year ago

Had we evolved under a red star, I'm pretty sure we'd be saying our star was "white". We have eyes which were optimised for the frequency spectra of our star.

[-] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 1 year ago

I assume it's all relative, right? We could just as easily say there are hotness 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The question was, is ours perfect at a 3? And the answer was actually ours is a 4. If our star was a 1 and we evolved under that, I don't think it would change our perspective on the different hotness levels. A 4 would still be a 4.

[-] AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

The sun is a yellow star. It just looks white to us.

[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, it is a yellow dwarf, which has nothing at all to do with the color of the sun and everything to do with the mass,temp and fusion properties of the star.

Color wise though, it doesn't just look white to us, it IS white. Snow is white because it's reflecting sunlight, which is also why polar bear fur is white, and it's why rainbows show all visible colors, because the sunlight they're formed from contains all visible wavelengths, aka white.

[-] AnalogyAddict@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Yes. It's a yellow star that emits white light, not a white star.

[-] Perfide@reddthat.com 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Okay? How is that relevant then, when we're specifically talking about the color of stars, not their classification?

this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
99 points (95.4% liked)

Asklemmy

43733 readers
1124 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS