Colors of Stars
What does the color of a star mean?
Goal:
Goal:
If you've ever looked up at the night sky, you might have noticed the multitude of stars. Have you ever noticed that some are slightly different colors? These colors tell us their temperature.
A diagram comparing star temperature with its color. An
arrow on the bottom of the diagram indicates that the
range is from coldest on the left side to hottest on the
right side. There are colored circles representing the
stars across the diagram. Starting on the left side, there
is a red circle labeled 3000 K, an orange circle labeled
4000K, a yellow circle labeled 6000 K, a light yellow
circle labeled 7000 K, a light blue/white circle labeled
10,000K, a aquamarine circle labeled 20,000K and a dark
blue circle labeled 30,000K.
Based on this, can you guess what the temperature of our Sun is? It is close to an orange star, so its temperature is around 5,000 degrees Celsius.
Which color of star is the hottest? Which is the coolest?
Blue stars are the hottest, and red stars are the coolest.