Why are there no green stars?
228As stars burn hotter and hotter, they go from looking red to orange to yellow to white to blue... But why are there no green stars?
Starlight looks basically like an ideal blackbody spectrum: a broad curve with the peak wavelength depending on the temperature.
However, our eyes see in a 3-dimensional color space by sampling the intensities of red, green, and blue light. Cool stars emit mostly in infrared, which we can't see, but within the visible spectrum, they emit much more red light than blue/green. Hot stars shine mostly in UV, but emit more blue than red/green.
But if the peak emission wavelength is green, then the broad blackbody curve is centered in the visible spectrum. So star emits roughly the same amount of red, green, and blue light, appearing white!
I make math and physics animations! Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/bencbartlett
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