10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Colors That Will Change How You See the World
We interact with colors every single second, yet most of what we "know" about them is actually a myth. From the "yellow" sun to the "seven" colors of the rainbow, our eyes and brains are constantly playing tricks on us. At Amaziest, we believe everything is amazing when you look closely enough—and color is no exception.
As we step into 2026, where AI and high-tech telescopes are showing us more of the universe than ever, it’s time to debunk the biggest lies about color. Here are 10 scientific facts that will make you question your own eyes.
There are some fantastic facts about colors we all get wrong. For example, the sun's color is yellow, or we see black at night or when we close our eyes. We wrongly think gold is gold, water is colorless, and there are 7 colors in the rainbow. It is a scientific fact about color that the conjectured act of seeing color is more complex than we think. Science, the brain, eyes, and even language determine how we see colors. We only see colors we've names for. It means colors without names usually get misidentified. One well-known color is blue, but you know it was called green for most of history. Blue is not a single color with a controversial and questionable history.
10. What Color Do You See in Total Darkness?
Think it’s black? Think again. When you close your eyes or sit in a pitch-black room, you don’t see true black (#000000). You see a dark, grainy grey called Eigengrau (a German term for "intrinsic grey"). Because our optic nerves are always "on," they create a tiny bit of background noise, making the brain perceive a very dark grey rather than total nothingness. For the designers out there, the hex code is #16161d.
9. The "Impossible" Existence of Pink
Here is a secret: Pink does not exist on the light spectrum. There is no such thing as a "pink wavelength." So, why do we see it? When our eyes see red and violet (which are at opposite ends of the rainbow) at the same time, our brain doesn't know how to bridge the gap. Instead of showing us a gap, the brain "invents" pink to make sense of the mixture. Pink isn't a property of light; it’s a construction of your mind.
8. Why the "7 Colors of the Rainbow" is a Myth
Do you know how many colors there are in the rainbow? Ancient societies had different answers. Homer (the Greek author) said the rainbow had just one color, and that is purple. Xenophanes (the Greek philosopher) said the rainbow had three colors: red, yellow-green, and purple. In the period between the 1300s and 1600s, everyone agreed the rainbow had four colors: yellow, red, blue, and green, then later added purple as a fifth color. In modern days, everyone else thinks it is six or seven. However, the Chinese people still swear by the five-color rainbow. After reading this, you should wonder why people have different answers about how many colors we have in the rainbow. It should not be hard to fix (determination). Anyway, everyone sees the rainbow.
So the correct answer is that it depends on whoever is counting. No precise edges depart the colors, so everyone sees whatever color they have a name for. A man or woman with a broad knowledge of colors could see hundreds of colors, while a man or woman with limited or less understanding of colors will always come up with fewer than 7. Sir Isaac Newton claimed the current 7-color rainbow in 1666. People thought the rainbow had 5 colors. Though Sir Newton bought everything in the universe that existed in the sevens. There were seven planets (Pluto and Uranus had not been discovered in Newton's time), seven days a week, and seven notes in the musical scale. Therefore, mistakenly, he assumed the rainbow should have 7 colors.
7. Is Water Truly Colorless?
We’re taught that water is clear, odorless, and tasteless. While it is clear, pure water actually has a very faint light blue tint. This isn't just a reflection of the sky. Large volumes of water absorb red and yellow light, leaving behind that subtle blue hue. Interestingly, some historical and scholarly perspectives, like those of the researcher Ahmed Raza Khan, have explored "black" as a fundamental state of deep water, which aligns with modern science's view that in the deep, lightless "midnight zone" of the ocean, water indeed appears as a void.
You may also read: Why We Don't Give Water To Newborn Babies?
6. Gold is Actually Yellow (Because of Relativity)
Gold should technically look silver, like most other metals. The reason it has that warm, yellow glow is due to Einstein’s Special Relativity. The electrons in gold atoms move so incredibly fast that they "contract" in a way that shifts the light they reflect from blue/violet to yellow. If it weren't for relativity, your gold wedding ring would look like a silver one.
5. Space is More "Boring" Than You Think
Everyone thinks space is colorful, especially when they see pictures taken by space agencies. If you meet scientists who have been to space, they will tell you it is way more tedious than you think. There is not much to see except the random dots of light. You will see nothing colorful either if you see it from a telescope, holding many heavenly bodies that release lights behind the wavelengths we can see. That is not nearly always red and blue, which remain the two most basic colors in nature (the universe).
The question is, from where do those colorful pictures come? Hold on to your heart, and take a deep breath; every image you have seen of space or some other heavenly body, like comets and plants or exploding stars, etc., is artificial (fake). Before you close this site, I would like to clarify that the pictures are accurate. It is a color that is not real (fake). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration adds color to its images to highlight prominent features of interest, allowing us to see lights that would have been invisible to us, and piques our interest. Seeing dull, blackish, blue, and red pictures from space will get boring. Therefore, NASA regularly adds colors like green, orange, and purple to make it look nice and cool.
4. Forbidden Colors: The Ones You Can't See
There are "forbidden" colors that your brain literally blocks you from seeing. Because of how our cone cells work, you cannot see a "Reddish-Green" or a "Blueish-Yellow." These are called opponent colors. The same nerve cells that perceive red are inhibited by green, so they can't send both signals at once. However, some scientists have used special eye-tracking experiments to "force" the brain to see these impossible colors. They are described as being more vibrant than anything found in nature.
3. We Are Still "Inventing" New Colors
You might think we’ve found every color, but we are still creating them. In the last few years, we’ve seen the rise of Vantablack (the world's darkest material) and YInMn Blue (the first new blue pigment in 200 years). Vantablack is so dark that it absorbs 99.96% of light, making any 3D object look like a flat, bottomless hole. In 2026, scientists are even using AI to develop "structural colors" that change depending on the angle you look at them!
2. Your "Blue" Might Be My "Green."
Do we all see the same colors? Science says: probably not. While most of us have the same three photoreceptors, the density and distribution of these cells vary from person to person. Furthermore, some women are Tetrachromats, meaning they have a fourth cone cell that allows them to see up to 100 million colors—shades that the rest of us literally cannot imagine. To them, a plain white wall might look like a complex mosaic of colors.
1. The Sun is Pure White
The biggest lie of all is that the sun is yellow. If you were in space, the sun would look like a brilliant, blinding pure white ball. It only looks yellow to us because the Earth’s atmosphere scatters the shorter blue and violet wavelengths of light, leaving the longer "yellowish" wavelengths to reach our eyes. If the sun were truly yellow, the clouds (which reflect sunlight) would also be yellow!