Sun Is Actually White Not Yellow

From our childhood drawings to the emojis on our phones, we’ve been culturally conditioned to see the sun as a brilliant yellow orb. This familiar color, however, is an atmospheric illusion. The star at the center of our solar system actually emits light across the entire visible spectrum, and when all those colors combine, the result is a brilliant, unfiltered white. The yellow hue we perceive is the result of our own planet's atmosphere scattering the sunlight as it passes through.

This phenomenon, known as Rayleigh scattering, affects shorter, bluer wavelengths of light more strongly than longer, redder ones. As sunlight travels to our eyes, much of the blue light is scattered in all directions, which is precisely what paints our sky its familiar color. What’s left of the direct sunlight is a spectrum with less blue, which our eyes perceive as yellow. Astronauts in orbit, viewing the Sun from above this atmospheric filter, see it in its true, intense white form.

The effect is even more dramatic during sunrise and sunset. At these times, the Sun's light must travel through a much thicker slice of the atmosphere to reach us. This scatters away even more of the blue and green light, allowing the spectacular reds and oranges to dominate the horizon. In essence, the same physical process that gives us blue skies is also responsible for our yellow sun and fiery sunsets.