Which color star is hottest?

Which color star is hottest?

• A. Red star
• B. Yellow star
• C. White star
• D. Blue star

Answer: (D)

Colors reveal surface temperature: hotter stars glow with shorter wavelengths and thus appear blue, while cooler stars emit more at longer wavelengths and look red. This comes from how blackbody radiation shifts with temperature—peak emission moves toward the blue end as temperature rises. So, among red, yellow, white, and blue, the blue star is the hottest because its light peaks there, indicating the highest surface temperature in the set. Red stars are coolest, yellow stars are intermediate, and white stars are hotter than yellow but not as hot as blue.

Colors reveal surface temperature: hotter stars glow with shorter wavelengths and thus appear blue, while cooler stars emit more at longer wavelengths and look red. This comes from how blackbody radiation shifts with temperature—peak emission moves toward the blue end as temperature rises. So, among red, yellow, white, and blue, the blue star is the hottest because its light peaks there, indicating the highest surface temperature in the set. Red stars are coolest, yellow stars are intermediate, and white stars are hotter than yellow but not as hot as blue.