雙語(yǔ)探秘：太陽(yáng)究竟是什么顏色的(組圖) -新概念英語(yǔ)

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

今天我剛發(fā)現(xiàn)，太陽(yáng)表面的顏色是白色的，不是黃色。

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。

之所以我們?cè)诘厍蛏嫌萌庋劭吹降奶?yáng)是黃色的，是因?yàn)榈厍虻拇髿鈱由⑸淞颂?yáng)光線；所以太陽(yáng)表面的顏色對(duì)我們而言就有所變化了。

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

這與白天天空是藍(lán)色，而夜晚天空就是黑色的原理是一樣的，都因?yàn)楫a(chǎn)生了光線的散射。

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。

更準(zhǔn)確一些的說(shuō)，地球大氣層把藍(lán)色和紫色的波長(zhǎng)范圍進(jìn)行散射，所以光線中剩下的波長(zhǎng)就顯現(xiàn)出了黃色。

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。

當(dāng)太陽(yáng)落山的時(shí)候，由于太陽(yáng)高度角降低，更多的藍(lán)色光波被散射；因此光線必須要穿越更厚的大氣層才能到地球。

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

越來(lái)越多的散射，使得你肉眼所能看到的藍(lán)色光波越來(lái)越少，于是剩下的光線就是黃色的了

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。

同樣，如果空氣中塵埃比較多，或是空氣中有很多其它大顆粒，那么那些較長(zhǎng)的光波就會(huì)被過(guò)濾掉，于是天空就會(huì)是紅色，太陽(yáng)也會(huì)是紅色。

Bonus Factoids:

補(bǔ)充一些有趣的小知識(shí)：

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

太陽(yáng)光線“長(zhǎng)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。

雖然太陽(yáng)光從太陽(yáng)表面到達(dá)地球僅僅需要8分19秒，但是一個(gè)光量子要想從太陽(yáng)中心內(nèi)部到達(dá)太陽(yáng)表面，卻要用一萬(wàn)至十七萬(wàn)年。

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

太陽(yáng)表面的溫度高達(dá)5780開，相當(dāng)于一萬(wàn)華氏度和5500攝氏度一下的溫度。

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

太陽(yáng)中心的密度相當(dāng)于地球水體密度的一百五十倍。

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。

太陽(yáng)質(zhì)量的約75%都是氫氣，其余的有約23.8%都是氦氣，還有剩下的2%是由鐵、氧氣、碳、氖氣還有其他多種成分組成的。