Nowadays, publications in astrophysics are mainly published and read in digitized formats. Astrophysical publications in both research and in popular outreach often use colorful representations of stars to indicate various stellar types, that is, different spectral types or effective temperatures. Computer‐generated and computer‐displayed imagery has become an integral part of stellar astrophysics communication. There is, however, no astrophysically motivated standard color palette for illustrative representations of stars, and some stars are actually represented in misleading colors. We use precomputed PHOENIX and TLUSTY stellar model spectra and convolve them with the three standard color‐matching functions for human color perception between 360 and 830 nm. The color‐matching functions represent the three sets of receptors in the eye that respond to red, green, and blue light. For a grid of main‐sequence stars with effective temperatures between 2,300 and 55,000 K of different metallicities, we present the red–blue–green and hexadecimal color codes that can be used for digitized color representations of stars as if seen from space. We find significant deviations between the color codes of stars computed from stellar spectra and from a black body radiator of the same effective temperature. We illustrate the main sequence in the color wheel and demonstrate that there are no yellow, green, cyan, or purple stars. Red dwarf stars (spectral types M0V–M9V) actually look orange to the human eye. Old white dwarfs such as WD 1856 + 534, host to a newly discovered transiting giant planet candidate, appear pale orange to the human eye, not white. Our freely available software can be used to generate color codes for any input spectrum such as those from planets, galaxies, quasars, etc.

中文翻译：

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星星的数字颜色代码

如今，天体物理学的出版物主要以数字化形式出版和阅读。无论是在研究领域还是在大众范围内，天体物理学出版物经常使用彩色的恒星表示来表示各种恒星类型，即不同的光谱类型或有效温度。计算机生成和计算机显示的图像已成为恒星天体物理学通信不可或缺的一部分。但是，对于天体的图示表示，没有天文学动机的标准调色板，并且某些恒星实际上是用误导性的颜色表示的。我们使用预先计算的PHOENIX和TLUSTY恒星模型光谱，并将它们与三种标准的色彩匹配功能进行卷积，以实现360至830 nm之间的人类色彩感知。颜色匹配功能代表眼睛中响应红，绿和蓝光的三组受体。对于有效温度在2300到55,000 K之间的，由不同金属组成的主序恒星网格，我们提供了红，蓝，绿和十六进制颜色代码，这些代码可用于恒星的数字化颜色表示，就像从太空中看到的那样。我们发现，根据恒星光谱和相同有效温度的黑体辐射器计算出的恒星颜色代码之间存在显着偏差。我们说明了色轮中的主要顺序，并说明没有黄色，绿色，青色或紫色的星星。实际上，红色矮星（光谱类型M0V–M9V）在人眼中看起来是橙色。旧的白矮星（例如WD 1856 + 534）是新发现的过境巨人候选行星的宿主，在人眼中呈现淡橙色，而不是白色。我们免费提供的软件可用于为任何输入光谱（例如来自行星，星系，类星体等的光谱）生成颜色代码。