if the sun produces white light that then refracts into other colors when it enters our atmosphere, why does it appear yellow in photographs from space?

Question

Explanation can be more complex, I don’t mind 🙂

In: Physics

Answer 1

The sun from space is white, and if you took a photo would look white. e.g. : [https://cosmic-watch.com/cosmicbeta/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sunfromspace_c.jpg](https://cosmic-watch.com/cosmicbeta/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/sunfromspace_c.jpg)

However, the photos you are thinking of are probably photos taken from space telescopes, like the Hubble. Those photos don’t have colors, only shades of grey. The colors are added after, to make the image more interesting and to help visualize details. They choose yellow/orange/red for the sun, because it is what we are used to. But they could choose any other set of colors.

If you want to see a better explanation of how they manipulate the photos of the Hubble, and see examples of before/after, check this article: [https://www.businessinsider.com/how-hubble-images-are-manipulted-2015-3](https://www.businessinsider.com/how-hubble-images-are-manipulted-2015-3)