Sun Appears Yellow on Earth as 400-nm Light Scatters About 9 Times More Than Red

5 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · May 30

Seen from space, the Sun is white, not yellow; astronauts on the ISS and Apollo missions photographed it that way above any atmosphere.
Rayleigh scattering in Earth’s atmosphere strips more blue and violet light from the direct solar beam, making the Sun look yellower while the scattered light makes the sky appear blue.
The effect is strongly wavelength-dependent: 400-nm blue light scatters about nine times more than 700-nm red light, because scattering scales roughly with the inverse fourth power of wavelength.
At noon the Sun can look nearly white because light crosses less atmosphere; near sunrise and sunset, the longer path removes even more short wavelengths, shifting the Sun toward orange and red.
The Sun’s roughly 5,800-kelvin spectrum spans the visible range and reads as white to human eyes; the label "yellow dwarf" describes its stellar class, not its literal color.

Why do we universally draw the Sun yellow if astronauts confirm it's actually white?

If our atmosphere makes the Sun yellow, what color is a sunset on Mars?