Key Takeaways:
- Green stars demonstrably exist, with their emitted color serving as an indicator of their temperature.
- These stars radiate most intensely at wavelengths corresponding to the green segment of the visible-light spectrum.
- Despite their peak emission in green, these stars also emit radiation across the entire spectrum of visible light wavelengths.
- Human visual perception interprets the combined broad-spectrum emissions of such stars as white light, rather than a distinct green.
Green stars do exist. A star’s color indicates its temperature. Green stars emit radiation most intensely at wavelengths in the green part of the visible-light spectrum. They also emit radiation over the range of visible-light wavelengths.
White light contains all the visible-light colors smeared together. The human eye detects green, but green is in the middle of the visible-light spectrum. Your eyes see white when looking at a star emitting its peak radiation in the green part of the visible-light spectrum. — Laura Layton, Associate Editor
