Post on Twitter starts a debate about whether the colour of the sun is white or yellow

Recently, a Twitter post sparked a debate on the color of the sun, with some users believing that the sun is white while others claiming that it used to be yellow. The discussion began when Jacqui Deevoy, a writer, tweeted that the sun, which she remembered as round and yellow from her childhood, had turned white and looked distorted. The post received more than six million views and left users divided into two camps.

This debate raised a curious question – what is the color of the sun? According to scientists, the sun is a bit of both yellow and white, but neither is its actual color. In fact, the sun is green. W Dean Pesnell, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory’s project scientist, stated that if a person’s eye could handle looking directly at the sun, it would appear green.

When looking at the sun, it appears white because it has enough of all the different colors in it, and it is so bright that everyone’s eyes are overwhelmed, making it too bright to discern its color. Although the star appears white, some people believe that it is yellow because of how light is scattered. Pesnell explained that molecules in the air redirect the blue and violet wavelengths of sunlight, allowing more red and yellow wavelengths to reach our eyes.

Pesnell added that the sun appears to change colors because of the way our atmosphere works. The star is hot and gives off blue light, whereas cooler stars appear red. “What we perceive as the sun’s hue is really light bouncing off surfaces. When it comes to stars, color equals temperature,” he said. The sun’s core reaches a temperature of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, putting it in a strange space where its color cannot be easily perceived.

Although the sun looks white to us, it is essentially a green star that appears white because of its brightness. Pesnell believes that the sun’s mass of glowing gases is likely to change hues over millions of years. However, he stated that the sun is currently in its midlife and has not dimmed out one bit, with quite a few years left before it changes colors.