Astronomers Just Found the First Green Star

For as long as we've sorted stars by colour, one colour has been missing: green. This October, astronomers at the University of Warwick ran the light of nearby dead stars through a model of the human eye, and one white dwarf, WD J1330+6435, came back a pale, ghostly green. The reason is even stranger: its colour comes from the crushed remains of planets it destroyed billions of years ago. If you could choose the colour of the sun in your sky, what would it be? Let me know in the comments. Chapters 0:00 The missing colour 1:10 Why stars are never green 2:20 What's left when a star dies 3:33 The survey of 151 dead stars 5:09 The first green star 6:26 The planets it destroyed 8:07 What it means Sources Hollands, Gänsicke, Tremblay & Koester, "Any colour you like: the diverse chromaticities of white dwarfs", RAS Techniques and Instruments (15 Oct 2026). doi.org/10.1093/rasti/rzag069 University of Warwick press release, "Astronomers reveal surprising true colours of white dwarfs" (15 Oct 2026) BBC Sky at Night Magazine, 16 Oct 2026 (quotes from Mark Hollands and Boris Gänsicke) Popular Science, 15 Oct 2026 Hollands et al., "Alkali metals in white dwarf atmospheres as tracers of ancient planetary crusts", Nature Astronomy (2021). arXiv:2101.01225 University of Warwick press release, "Vaporised crusts of Earth-like planets found in dying stars" (Feb 2021) Image credits Artist's impression of WD J1330+6435: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick White dwarf colour panel: Mark Hollands / University of Warwick Earth and Mars textures: Solar System Scope (CC BY 4.0) All other CGI and animation: The Infinite (rendered in Blender) Music "Frozen Star" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Infinite Perspective" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Lightless Dawn" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Echoes of Time" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Floating Cities" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Interloper" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) "Dreams Become Real" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... #space #astronomy #whitedwarf #greenstar #documentary