What are purple stars?

Purple stars are stars that look purple because of how they shine and what makes them bright.

Imagine you have a red balloon and a blue balloon. If you put them together in just the right way, they can make something that looks purple, like when you mix paint! Stars, like our Sun, are giant balls of hot gas. Some stars are very hot and give off light that looks more like red or orange. But some stars are even hotter and give off light that we see as blue or white. When scientists look at these really hot stars through special tools, sometimes they mix the colors just right to make them seem purple.

We see different colors because of how light works. A star might be giving off a lot of blue light and some red light too. Our eyes, or special machines that help scientists look at stars, can mix those together, making us see purple instead of just one color.

It's kind of like when you shine a blue flashlight on a red shirt, the shirt looks purple! That’s how we know there are purple stars in space.