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Credit & Copyright: David Malin
Explanation:
What determines a star's colour?
Its temperature.
Red stars are cool, around 3,000
kelvins (K), while blue stars are hotter and can
have temperatures over 30,000 K.
Our own lovely yellow Sun's temperature is a
comforting 6,000 K.
Differences in star colours are dramatically
illustrated in the above photo of
the constellation Orion,
made using a "star trail step-focus" technique.
In this technique, a time exposure is used to create
star trails,
but during the exposure, the focus is changed in steps.
For the brighter stars, the blurred image
produces more saturated colours in photographs.
At the upper left,
the cool red supergiant Betelgeuse
stands out from the other, hotter, bluish stars composing
the body of the constellation.
Bright
Rigel, a blue supergiant, is at the lower right.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Orion - temperature - star
Publications with words: Orion - temperature - star
See also: