Why is the Sun yellow while the stars are white

The image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory spacecraft assigns false colours to reveal details on the Sun's surface.



The light receptor cells-known as cones-in the human eye, are considerably less sensitive than the cells responsible for distinguishing light and darkness-known as rods. As a result, in dim light we are barely able to discern colour-as the saying goes: at night all cats are grey. Therefore, most stars appear to us to be white-only in the very brightest stars can we see traces of colour. For example, the star Antares in the constellation Scorpius appears to be reddish. The colour of a star enables astronomers to gauge its temperature. Red stars are cooler than the Sun, while blue stars are very hot.