探秘：太阳究竟是什么颜色的(组图)

http://www.sina.com.cn   2010年03月19日 12:04   国际在线

　　Today I found out the Sun is white, not yellow。

　　今天我刚发现，太阳表面的颜色是白色的，不是黄色。

　　The reason the Sun looks yellow to us on Earth is that our atmosphere scatters light from the Sun; so the apparent color of the sun changes。

　　之所以我们在地球上用肉眼看到的太阳是黄色的，是因为地球的大气层散射了太阳光线；所以太阳表面的颜色对我们而言就有所变化了。

　　This same scattering effect is why the sky looks blue in the day time instead of black, like at night。

　　这与白天天空是蓝色，而夜晚天空就是黑色的原理是一样的，都因为产生了光线的散射。

　　Specifically, what is going on here is the Earth’s atmosphere scatters light in the blue and violet wavelength range, so the remaining wavelengths of light appear yellow。

　　更准确一些的说，地球大气层把蓝色和紫色的波长范围进行散射，所以光线中剩下的波长就显现出了黄色。

　　As the sun is setting, more of the shorter wavelength blue is being scattered because of the decreased angle of the sun relative to you; thus the light has to pass through more atmosphere to get to you。

　　当太阳落山的时候，由于太阳高度角降低，更多的蓝色光波被散射；因此光线必须要穿越更厚的大气层才能到地球。

　　This increased diffusion results in less of the blue wavelength being visible to you and thus what remains appears yellow。

　　越来越多的散射，使得你肉眼所能看到的蓝色光波越来越少，于是剩下的光线就是黄色的了

　　Similarly, if it is dusty or there are a lot of other larger particles in the air, this will filter out larger wavelengths, resulting in a red sky and red sun。

　　同样，如果空气中尘埃比较多，或是空气中有很多其它大颗粒，那么那些较长的光波就会被过滤掉，于是天空就会是红色，太阳也会是红色。

　　Bonus Factoids:

　　补充一些有趣的小知识：

　　1.Light travels from the Sun to the Earth in about 8 minutes and 19 seconds。

　　太阳光线“长途跋涉”到地球上，大概需要8分19秒

　　2.While it only takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds for the light from the surface of the sun to reach us, it actually takes about 10,000-170,000 years for a photon to travel from the core of the sun to the surface。

　　虽然太阳光从太阳表面到达地球仅仅需要8分19秒，但是一个光量子要想从太阳中心内部到达太阳表面，却要用一万至十七万年。

　　3.The Sun has an effective surface temperature of 5780 K, which is equivalent to just under 10,000 F and 5500 C。

　　太阳表面的温度高达5780开，相当于一万华氏度和5500摄氏度一下的温度。

　　4.The core of the Sun has a density almost 150 times the density of water on Earth。

　　太阳中心的密度相当于地球水体密度的一百五十倍。

　　5.About 3/4 of the Sun’s mass consists of hydrogen, with most of the rest being helium (23.8%) and about 2% remaining consisting of other elements such as iron, oxygen, carbon, neon, and a variety of others。

　　太阳质量的约75%都是氢气，其余的有约23.8%都是氦气，还有剩下的2%是由铁、氧气、碳、氖气还有其他多种成分组成的。