How do planets get their colors?

Answer 1

The colors of the planets differ in different imagery depending on what equipment was used to picture it. This list, however, represents the true colors as the planets would appear for the human eye if you were close enough to see it without technical aid. Planets with an atmosphere may change color if you move inside the atmosphere.

• Mercury - grey (rocks, no atmosphere),
• Venus - pale yellow (sulfuric clouds),
• Earth - blue with white clouds (water and atmosphere. Sometimes areas of yellow, green and brown may be spotted but mostly with a blueish tint)
• Mars - orange/rusty red (rocks with high amounts of iron-oxide)
• Jupiter - orange with white bands (clouds of ammonium hydrosulfide and ammonia)
• Saturn - pale yellow (yellow/red gases seen through white ammonia. Northern hemisphere appears more blue as it is in the shadow of the rings around the planet)
• Uranus - light blue (methane clouds)
• Neptune - light blue (methane clouds - darker than Uranus because of the distance to the sun)
• Pluto - light brown (unpure methane ice)

Answer 2

Planets get their colors from a combination of factors like the composition of their atmospheres, the materials on their surfaces, and how light is scattered or absorbed by those materials. For example, Mars appears red because of iron oxide, while Neptune appears blue due to methane in its atmosphere. Each planet's unique characteristics determine its color.