diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.spec.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.spec.ts
index e2f60ba..ddcf87f 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.spec.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.spec.ts
@@ -130,6 +130,12 @@ describe('starSubtitle', () => {
     expect(starSubtitle(GAIA_STAR)).toBe('Spectral type ~K5, from colour');
   });
 
+  it('says an estimate came from the temperature where the colour was read off it', () => {
+    // PSR J1719-1438: no magnitude in any colour, st_teff 4 500 K, B−V 1.13 off the dwarf sequence.
+    const pulsar = { ...GAIA_STAR, source: 'exoplanet-archive', colorIndex: 1.128, colorSystem: 'B-V', colorFromTemperature: true } as const;
+    expect(starSubtitle(pulsar)).toBe('Spectral type ~K5, from its temperature');
+  });
+
   it('prints nothing rather than "Unknown" when there is neither', () => {
     expect(starSubtitle({ ...GAIA_STAR, colorIndex: null, colorSystem: undefined })).toBe('');
   });
diff --git a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.ts b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.ts
index 0b39acb..a5725e5 100644
--- a/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.ts
+++ b/src/app/features/galaxy-system/star-readouts.ts
@@ -21,11 +21,14 @@ export function describingCatalogue(star: StarRecord): string {
 /**
  * What the readout says a star is: the catalogue's classification, or — for the 83 % of stars
  * that have none, every Gaia star among them — the dwarf type its colour matches, marked as an
- * estimate. Empty with neither, rather than the ETL's literal "Unknown".
+ * estimate. Empty with neither, rather than the ETL's literal "Unknown". Where the colour was itself
+ * read off the archive's temperature, the estimate says so: 30 archive hosts measured in no colour
+ * read "~X, from colour", PSR J1719-1438, a pulsar the archive gives 4 500 K, "~K5, from colour".
  */
 export function starSubtitle(star: StarRecord): string {
   const classification = spectralClassification(star);
-  return !classification ? '' : `Spectral type ${classification}${classification.startsWith('~') ? ', from colour' : ''}`;
+  const basis = star.colorFromTemperature ? ', from its temperature' : ', from colour';
+  return !classification ? '' : `Spectral type ${classification}${classification.startsWith('~') ? basis : ''}`;
 }
 
 /**