3.7 Why Are There No Green Stars?
Pre-Lecture Reading 3.7
-
•None
Video Lecture
-
•Why Are There No Green Stars? (5:11)
Supplementary Notes
Cones
-
•See Cones.
-
•If a source of light is sufficiently bright, the human eye detects it with "cones."
-
•Cones measure the brightness of an object in three visible bands, roughly corresponding to red, green, and blue.
-
•The human brain then combines these measurements into a single color.
-
•Thermal spectra of increasing temperature result in the following combined colors: red, orange, yellow, yellow-white, white, blue-white, blue.
-
•Why not green?
Rods
-
•See Rods.
-
•If a source of light is too faint to detect with cones, the human eye tries to detect it with "rods."
-
•Rods measure the brightness of an object in a single visible band, not splitting the light three ways like cones do.
-
•The human brain interprets this measurement as a shade of gray, with white corresponding to bright and black corresponding to too faint to detect.
-
•The stars at night are incredibly colorful, but too faint to detect with your cones (with a few exceptions). Consequently, the night sky looks black and white to us. Too bad!
Exercise
If aided by a telescope, the human eye can see red, orange, yellow, yellow-white, white, blue-white, and blue stars. Why are there no green stars?