Stars appear to be of various colors based on the visible light they emit. I am wondering if there is a hex color code that can be considered to be typified or average for the various classifications and temperature of stars (O, B, A, F, G, K, and M; 0-9)?
I am hoping for a fairly simplistic answer in the form of a list, as I am an artist, not a mathematician.
You will need to perform a series of conversions to get what you want. Here I show you how to use pictures to get a very rough answer. But it should work for what you want.
First for each type of star, you need to know its surface temperature. You can get that from this Hertzsprung-Russell diagram I copied from https://www.mtsu.edu/physics/Astronomy/prelab9_HR_diagram.php.
For example, you can see that a G type star like the Sun has a temperature of about 6000 C.
Then for each surface temperature, you need to find what color is emitted. Here is the C.I.E. 1931 Chromaticity Diagram. This is a standard chart, but this copy has some extra notes on it. I downloaded it from https://www.ledtronics.com/html/1931ChromaticityDiagram.htm. For any color, you can see what the X and Y color coordinates of that color are.
The black line in the middle is the colors of blackbodies at various temperatures. 6500 C corresponds to white light. This is about the temperature of the Sun. You can see that the X,Y coordinates of this point are about 0.33,0.33.
For other temperatures, see the yellow numbers along the bottom. Find the temperature you want and go straight up to the black line. That shows you the color and allows you to find the X and Y color coordinates.
Next you need to convert from X,Y to RGB. Here is a website that helps. RGB/xy Color Conversion. It shows the same Chromaticity diagram. There is a + on it that you can drag around with your mouse. As you drag it, the X,Y and RGB values are calculated.
If you know X,Y, drag the + until you hit it (or get close enough). The RGB you need is displayed. For 0.33,0.33, I get RGB is 255,235,226. Here is a screenshot.
In summary,
G type star
-> 6000 C
-> X,Y = 0.33,0.33
-> RGB = 255,235,226
Various lists of hex codes for star classes and temperatures can be found on Mitchel Charity's site vendian.org, along with explanations that to my untrained understanding seem to be a rough match for mmesser314's explanations. However, mmesser314's otherwise excellent answer did not provide the hex codes, which was the goal of the question.
The list presented here is taken directly from Mitchel's site, all credit for the work belongs to Mitchel and collaborators. Mitchel's website was also referenced by a discovermagazine.com article and a todayifoundout.com article.
| Sp5(V) | R | G | B | Hexadecimal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | 155 | 176 | 255 | #9bb0ff |
| B | 170 | 191 | 255 | #aabfff |
| A | 202 | 215 | 255 | #cad7ff |
| F | 248 | 247 | 255 | #f8f7ff |
| G | 255 | 244 | 234 | #fff4ea |
| K | 255 | 210 | 161 | #ffd2a1 |
| M | 255 | 204 | 111 | #ffcc6f |
See the linked pages from Mitchet's site for a more detailed list of known stars and other celestial object's colors using D65 as the whitepoint or a list of stellar classes using D58 as the whitepoint or the unauthorized list of the colors of the closest 100 stars as of the year 2000.
