how can the color of starlight reveal the temperature of a star?

Answer 1

This should help you: http://www.le.ac.uk/physics/faulkes/web/stars/o_st_overview.html

Answer 2

It has a direct relationship between temp and color. It also can tell you how young or old the star is as well. Young stars emit Blue, white or a blueish/white color and the temps are very hot. Medium aged stars are yellow. Older stars are orange and red, respectively in color. The stars burn their nuclear fuels differently and the older they get, the heavier the elements that they burn, so to speak. For example, a red star is near the end of it's lifecycle and burns primarily iron, hence the red color. Sometimes the true color that a star emits is shifted by the universe expanding at a constant rate, whether it be moving towards Earth (blue shift is what it's called) or moving away from us (red shift), so the star will begin to take on a different color than it was when it originally left the surface of the star.

Answer 3

Atoms emit light at specific frequenecies, because their electrons are in orbitals that are determined by quantum mechanics. They do not simple emit light at all frequencies; their spectra hav lines in them, and this allows us to determine what is in the star.

Looking at the intensity of light across the spectrum - especially the lines due to various elements found in the photospeheres of stars - allow us to work out the stars temperature.

Answer 4

absolutley, a red star will be a far cooler temperature than a blue star. Weird how that works when us humans associate cold things with the color blue and hot things with the color red...

Answer 5

a radiaitng object will have a light wavelength that is maximum according to the 4th power of the temperature. Search on Boltzmann.

Answer 6

Blue-white stars are the hottest. Reds are the coolest and are usually near the end of their life cycle.

Answer 7

it showes it wavelegth and the shorter wavelegths have diffrent colers and the shorter the wavelegths is the more energy it has and that tells how much energy a star is puting out in light and they can fig how much heat or the temperature of the star is

Answer 8

In astronomy, look up HR DIAGRAM. this should enlighten you, no pun intended. It was named after two people who discovered the same thing at the same time ( approximately ) HENRY NORRIS RUSSEL AND EJNAR HERZSPRUNG. Excuse my spelling but you really should read about the HR DIAGRAM.