What Color Is the Sun?
The sun is white. While it may appear yellow, orange, or even red at times, this is due to atmospheric effects. The sun actually emits all colors of the visible light spectrum in roughly equal amounts; this combination appears to our eyes as white.
The perception of the sun's color changes depending on several factors:
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Atmospheric Scattering: As sunlight passes through the Earth's atmosphere, shorter wavelengths of light (like blue and violet) scatter more readily than longer wavelengths (like red and orange). This is why the sky appears blue during the day. At sunrise and sunset, when the sunlight travels through a much longer path in the atmosphere, the shorter wavelengths are scattered away, leaving the longer wavelengths to dominate, resulting in a yellowish, orange, or reddish hue. [Source: Multiple articles linked above confirm this phenomenon].
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Observer's Perspective: The perceived color of the sun can also be influenced by the observer's location and the atmospheric conditions at that specific time. [Source: Multiple articles mention variation in observed color].
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Altitude: When the sun is high in the sky, it appears closer to its true color (white) as the light has less atmosphere to travel through. [Source: Big Think article supports this].
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Scientific Processing: Images of the sun that you see in media are often processed to enhance certain features or make them more visually appealing, sometimes altering the color perception. [Source: The Stanford article mentions processing of images to make the sun appear orange].
The True Color: White Light
Despite its varied appearance, scientific measurements confirm that the sun emits light across the entire visible spectrum relatively evenly. This full-spectrum light is what we perceive as white. [Source: NASA, Scientific American, and ChemistryViews articles all support this].
The sun emits strongest in the green part of the spectrum, but also emits strongly in all visible colors. [Source: NASA Eclipse 2017 website]
