Green Stars

[darrellx]

Hi All
I have just finished listening to a podcast from Fraser Cain and Dr Pamela Gay, where part of the discussion was on "Green Stars". The question was essentially why don't we see them?

The response was that there are green stars but not many of them, AND, our eyes don't really see the green that well. (I think I have summarized accurately!).

The response doesn't really convince me that well. I understand that there may not be a lot of them. They would sit between the yellow stars and the larger blue giants. But if our eyes are more "sensitive" to green (which I think is correct), I thought we would have no problems seeing green stars. It sounded like the suggestion was our eyes have less trouble seeing the red stars.

Has anyone listened to the same podcast?
Darrell

[WadeH]

I think the argument is flawed. Visual lack of observing green stars doesnt explain why photography and CCD does not show them.

[ngcles]

Hi Darrell & All,

You might find this short article of interest:

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q72.html


In a nut-shell, to quote: "colour does not exist as an 'objective property' of nature" -- there are no actual green stars. Our eye's perception of colour is a result of its differing sensitivity to different wavelengths across the visible spectrum.

Really, there is only Blue, White, Yellow, Orange and Red stars -- as we see them with our eyes that are only sensitive to certain colours.

Having said that, I've seen a lot of interesting colours in pairs (double stars) such as lilac, green, aquamarine and even pink (what'll they think of next a pink star!)

These colours are not "real" in the sense that it is a property of that star, they are contrast effects because of the colouration of the other star.

Hope this helps,


Best,

Les D