Scientists at the University of Warwick studied the colors of white dwarfs. A white dwarf is the small, very heavy remains of a star like our Sun. These stars can look pink, purple, yellow, or light blue. The team also found the first known star that would look truly green to human eyes. Its name is WD J1330+6435. Its temperature is about 4,000 degrees Celsius.
These stars are too far away for people to see their colors directly. The scientists studied their light instead. They used a computer model of human sight to work out the colors. The green star took in broken pieces of rock from its old planet system. These rocks added several substances to the gas around the star. One substance, sodium, takes in orange light. This leaves the star looking green.
The team also studied a group of 151 nearby white dwarfs. Five had unusual colors: two were yellow and three were pink. The scientists estimate that about one in 30 white dwarfs has an unusual color. But the typical white dwarf really does look white.
