Why do stars in telescope images either appear more warm toned/orange or cool toned/blue?

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In the recent telescope image released by NASA, some stars seem to be either more “warm toned” or “cool toned”. I’m just brainstorming but is it related to the distance from Earth? Or perhaps it’s dependent on the elemental makeup. Are they actually different colors or do we just perceive them that way? TIA

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Anonymous 0 Comments

VERY important notice:
Most of NASA’s images are “false colour”. That means they were taken either in non-visible wavelengths (like the new Webb images, which are infrared, no visible light) or narrow-band filters, and later re-coloured to make sense to the human eye.

But in general, stars have different colours depending on their temperature. Google “black body radiation”, I promise it’s not a troll search. Hotter stars are bluer, colder stars are redder (yes, the irony is real)

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