Would it be possible for a star to shine green at a point in its life cycle?

Question

Would it be possible for a star to shine green instead of yellow at a point in its life cycle, and how? Thanks, I look forward to your answers.

Answer 1

It all relates to two things.

1. The ambient surface/internal temperature of the star.

2. The type of stuff burning in the star.

Most stars burn hydrogen, which burns red then yellow and can approach blue/white as the temperature increases.

As stars age, they run through there supplies of fuel, so eventually, our sun will burn through it's hydrogen, and then get hotter due to gravity pulling everything that remains closer to the core, it will get so hot that helium will start to fuse, and on it goes.

Eventually, the star gets so hot that oxygen can fuse, at or near the surface of the star, and when this happens, stars could burn green , but not for very long, and they would be surrounded by the shells of their former layers so , we might not be able to get a clear shot of a green star.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h...

70 Ophiuchi appears green but this is due to filtering

http://www.richweb.f9.co.uk/astro/nearby...

Answer 2

The same question I put to myself several times. It appears to be to have a specific reason for a star not to appear green, like the reason for sky's blueness. If the reason is atmospheric, the other telescopes that were launched into space should at least reveal that one or the other planets are green. Sun should be green as its surface temperature points to that. Or else the reason has something to do with human beings' visual faculty; nature has shut off the dominant (most energetic part) of spectrum.    

Answer 3

No.  Stars radiate like black bodies - google the "Planck Curve".

They don't shine just one colour, they produce photons of a whole range of frequencies.  The part of the visible spectrum which appears green to human eyes is very thin - even if the peak of the Planck Curve was in the green region, the other photons would overwhelm the green ones and our eyes would NOT see the star as green.

Excellent question - I asked this as an undergrad :)

Answer 4

Yes. A star could appear to be any color of the spectrum. A star's color corresponds with its surface temperature.