Key Takeaways on the Color of the Sun
The color of the sun is actually white, though it may look yellow. If you were to get close enough to the sun, which you can't actually do, you'd be able to see its true color.
The light rays from the sun range in color across the color spectrum, including green, and when they are filtered through our blue atmosphere, they appear yellow.
A planet's atmosphere affects what color we perceive the sun as well. Thanks to Mars' thin atmosphere, the planet appears red to us.
The color of the sun is so much more than what it appears to be to the naked eye. The atmosphere, as well as our distance away from the sun, may change the way we view it.
During the day, the sun appears yellow, while in the morning and in the evening, the sun appears more orange or reddish, which is a consequence of how the sun interacts with the atmosphere before it hits your eyes. Then we perceive it to be a certain color, says Alex Gianninas, an astronomer at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut.
That said, you might already know that you shouldn’t look at the sun directly because the eye’s retina contains fragile cells that can become damaged by the full strength of the sun, and that damage can be permanent and can cause blindness.
What Is the Color of the Sun?
Most of the light that’s emitted from the sun is green, but when it enters Earth’s atmosphere and because the sky is blue, it appears yellow.
“The atmosphere is very good at scattering and spreading out the blue part of the light,” says Gianninas. “When you start with green and scatter out all the blue, you’re left with yellow.”
At sunrise and sunset, the sun appears more red or orange because it’s closer to the horizon, which means that it has to travel through more air before it’s seen by the eye, which causes more of the bluer color in the spectrum to be removed, says Gianninas. The hazier the day, the more red, because there’s even less blue that’s visible.
Why the Sun Is White
The surface of the sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and when heat is emitted at such a high temperature, it appears white to the human eye. That’s why if you were up close and personal with the sun, which of course you can’t be because of its heat, it would appear white.
When you think of heating metal, for example, its hottest point is when it appears white. That’s when you’re able to mold and shape it. And that’s how it would appear up close and when it’s viewed from space. What’s more, the sun has been the same color since it became a star 4.5 billion years ago.
Read More: How Old Is the Sun?
How the Atmosphere Changes Color
The same is true of the other planets. The colors of the planets are governed by the materials at their surfaces, or for those planets with thick atmospheres, by the compounds at the surface.
Mars appears reddish, which is why we often call it the Red Planet, because its surface is covered in oxidized metals, and because its atmosphere is so thin, what you find on the surface is the color you see.
“We can basically see all the way to its surface because its thin atmosphere doesn’t change the way that it looks,” says Gianninas.
Planets that have thick atmospheres like Venus, which is mostly made up of carbon dioxide, might appear very different. Venus is a yellowish or beige color, and planets like Neptune and Uranus, which appear very blue, have atmospheres that are made up of methane.
Will the Sun Change Color?
When it comes to the sun or really any planet for that matter, the colors that we see are what our eyes perceive. The atmosphere and even things like smog or pollution can change our perspective entirely.
And if you were up close and personal with the sun, you would perceive all the colors of the spectrum at once, which would appear to be white, not yellow like the drawings we drew as children.
Read More: Sun Showing Increased, Most Intense Solar Flare Activity Yet in 2025
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Space.com. How hot is the sun?
NASA. Our Sun: Facts
NASA. Mars
NASA. Neptune
Sara Novak is a science journalist based in South Carolina. In addition to writing for Discover, her work appears in Scientific American, Popular Science, New Scientist, Sierra Magazine, Astronomy Magazine, and many more. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. She's also a candidate for a master’s degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.
