If the sun’s rays a white and when they enter our atmosphere they appear yellow. \then whats changing the suns ray from white to yellow may not be our atmosphere but something along its way. The suns ray as many probraly know take 8 minutes to reach our plant and enter the atmosphere as well as the suns ray in our atmospher is not actully yellow but looks yellow as all the rays of the sun like inferred, UV, the blue rays(cant remember name) aswell as the other colours; green, purple etc. mix together causing what to us appears as a yellow ray of light. this is why we can get cancer from the sun because many rays a deadly to us humans.

Nice catch on the “10,000-170,000 years for a photon to travel from the core of the sun to the surface” point. Lots of interesting comments in this one.

Daniel: I agree, any computer model spitting out a color code will be limited for many reasons. I think it is only fitting that the “pinkish peach” result is what they found. Is the Sun a girl star? I think not! Lol

physics: The sun is close to a blackbody radiator, but not quite. There are a number of peak energy wavelengths and temperatures that can be discussed and are used by solar physicists:
1) Planck (blackbody) temperature. If you superimpose a ~ 5850K blackbody spectrum over the Sun, it will be a reasonably close match, especially in the red end of the spectrum. The peak wavelength at this temperature is 495.4 nm (4954 Angrstroms). This is more of cyan color (greenish blue), though the color will likely vary for different observers.

2) Effective temperature. At ~ 5777K, an object will radiate the same amount of net energy per unit area as the Sun. The peak wavelength for this temp. is 501.6 nm (5016 Angstroms). This is a green color for most people, I think.

3) Spectral Irradiance peak. Sp. irr. data from space observatories demonstrate peaks that vary from 450.5 nm (near violet) as found in the Wehrli ’85 data set to about 495 nm (near green). These peaks, however, are all very close to the same energy level, so they are more like pimples than peaks.

4) Spectral Photon flux. It is likely best to convert the spectral energy distribution into a photon flux distribution because it is a better way to model the responsiveness of our eyes. This produces an almost flat distribution across the visible spectrum. Ironically, there is a tiny peak (pimple) in the narrow yellow band, but no one peak makes a continent, and no one wavelength determines a net color observed. A flat photon flux distribution produces a white result.

Gonzobot, I see no reason to always represent the Sun in a color it is not. Further, most of the time the Sun appears as white or yellowish white since its time along the horizon is so short. I hope artists take their liberties and license and keep giving us their colorful versions, but occasionally it would be nice to see a few present it accurately, especially if it is a depiction of the Sun as seen from space.

James, the Sun Ain’t Yeller: Here is a fun and lengthy explanation:
http://www.scientificblogging.com/solar_fun_of_the_heliochromologist/the_color_of_the_sun_revelation

I suspect we are victims of using the yellow crayon in coloring the Sun, which may have left an indelible impression upon us from our youth. There are a number of ideas on this.

Daven and qwerty. The time it take an initial photon to make its way to the surface (photosphere), known as the random walk, seems to be much closer to the 170,000 years. The 10,000 year figure seems to be the time based on a more isotropic model where the Sun’s density was held constant. I vaguely recall a result of 18,000 years for the one paper I saw. I’m no expert, but I suspect I’m right on this.

Skd, the 1368 W/m^2 (The Solar Constant) is the energy per unit area that exists at one A.U., which is the Earth’s orbital radius. The net energy that reaches the surface is about 1000 watts/m^2 for direct sunlight at one atmosphere (AM1, directly overhead).

Cyde Weys. I suspect your evolutionary model is essentially correct, but there is wiggle room in this view, too. Evolution applies to all species and there is an enormous range in vision among species. White tail deer only have two color cones with one the seems to allow them some visibility in the UV range, possible best for avoiding early morning predators and maybe deer hunters climbing into blinds that the hunters think deer can not see their activity. Many birds have 4 color cones. I’d love to see what they see!

Justin & Dan. You raise a good point. For me, the “true color of the Sun” needs some definition to it. I take it to be the color observed if one were to see it from space and at a level that is comfortable for the eye, perhaps around 10 candela/m^2 or so. Astronauts have reported the Sun to appear as a very bright white star, but one all our color cones are maxed-out, then white is the result, regardless if it would look red or blue at a normal intensity level. [I see mac has addressed the oversaturation issue of our color cones.]

Solecize. Ah, you’ve been reading textbooks. That’s a problem. The Sun is classified as a dwarf star (G2V). Often it is stated to be a yellow dwarf star and most of the H-R diagrams will show it as a yellow star, though there is some that have changed this to a white color. The vast majority of textbooks and magazines will show the sun as other than white, even if the textbook tells you that the Sun is a white star, which it is.

Now that we know it is white, think about the problem this presents if we use white as the adjective for the official dwarf star classificiation. Yikes!!! The fun continues…

mac, I doubt that if you were to go in space and look at the Sun that you would see any hint of yellow even on the Solar limb. Solar projections through unfiltered telescopes do not show yellowish coloring on the disk. Since our atmosphere removes predominantly, though only partially, the colors at the blue end of the spectrum, adding these colors back into the white Solar projected disk will not cause a yellowish appearance. But would it give it a hint of blue in the hotter central region. Perhaps it will, but I wouldn’t bet much on it.

Shwan Garbett. Surprisingly, I got interested in this topic years ago when I read an east-coast astronomers very nice magazine 2 or 3 page article explaining why the Sun is a green star. This surprised me greatly and when even the Bad Astronomer (Phil Plait) was unclear on a definitive answer, I knew it might be fun to do my amateur research into this field of study, which is now known as heliochromology – the study of the color of the Sun. [Though it is a tongue-n-cheek term, it is still scientific. It’s fun in the Sun!]

Here, again, is a better story on the Sun’s color…
http://www.scientificblogging.com/solar_fun_of_the_heliochromologist/the_color_of_the_sun_revelation

George, your friendy neighborhood heliochromologist