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‘Cosmic Latte’ Is The Average Color Of The Universe
By Mikelle Leow, 30 Aug 2021
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Image via Shutterstock
Fancy a dash of Milky Way with your ‘Cosmic Latte’?
As it turns out, that’s the name of the average color of the universe, according to research picked up by Boing Boing. In a bid to discover more about star formation, astronomers Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of the Johns Hopkins University examined the light from over 200,000 galaxies and stumbled upon the beigeish white in 2003.
As a result, the scientists changed their previous average color of a greenish white from 2002 to this warmer hue, which—for all you computer geeks out there—officially bears the hex code #FFF8E7.
It’s deduced that, since stars used to be “brighter,” the universe evolved from a bluish tint to a redder hue, morphing from blue to yellow and red.
News outlets took a big gulp of this pick-me-up, fuelling the researchers to run a poll of potential names for the color. Interestingly, “cappuccino cosmico” got the most votes, but the astronomers decided that “cosmic latte” was more fitting. After all, “latte” is the Italian word for milk, and the Milky Way is a vital part of our solar system. Plus, the average color of the universe turns out to be close to the average color of the Milky Way.
The scientists admitted that the naming part wasn’t as methodical as the paper, since the team was “caffeine-biased.”
[via Boing Boing, images via various sources]
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