ExploraTour: A Peek into the Lives of the Stars
The Colors of the Night Sky
This is an image of the supergiant star, Betelgeuse, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Betelgeuse is in the constellation of Orion, a familiar site from the Northern Hemisphere. But look closely at this image. Betelgeuse is not yellow like our sun, but is very red in color.
Many people are surprised by this.
The sun and Betelgeuse are both made mostly of hydrogen so why are they different colors?