Why do stars shine in different colors?

Have you ever looked at the stars through a telescope or even just carefully at the night sky? Did you notice that some seem white, others reddish or even blue?

It all comes down to the star's temperature. Hot stars shine with blue and white light - they're literally heated to tens of thousands of degrees. Medium-sized stars, like our Sun, give off yellow or white light. But old and cooling stars turn red or orange - they're colder. It's like how iron in a stove glows red at first, then white if you heat it even more. Stars work on the same principle, just on a much larger scale.

Plus, the distance to a star and cosmic dust between us also affect what color we see. But the basic rule is simple: a blue star is a hot star, a red one is a cold one. And when you look at the starry sky, these colors tell you whole stories about the age and nature of these enormous celestial bodies.