Astronomy Picture of the Day - Cosmic Latte: The Average Color of the Universe

NASA ^ | 1 Dec, 2024 | Image Color Credit: Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry (JHU)

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: What color is the universe? More precisely, if the entire sky were smeared out, what color would the final mix be? This whimsical question came up when trying to determine what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies. The answer, depicted here, is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7. To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged the light emitted by one of the larger samples of galaxies analyzed: the 200,000 galaxies of the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The resulting cosmic spectrum has some emission in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but a single perceived composite color. This color has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent. In a contest to better name the color, notable entries included skyvory, univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[MtnClimber]

I hope readers will appreciate that I linked to the high resolution version of this photo.

[Stosh]

Last time I checked it looked mostly black to me.

[Larry Lucido]

I prefer red. We need to start manufacturing more red paint.

[BenLurkin]

At least it isn’t the Cosmic Slop.

[PeterPrinciple]

notable entries included skyvory, univeige, and the winner: cosmic latte.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte

Big Bang Buff/Blush/Beige Several entrants 13

could have been big bang beige

[A Navy Vet]

I tried your instructions and still got beige.

[DannyTN]

Looks vanilla to me.

And I’m good with that.

[BipolarBob]

You need to zoom in on that far left corner at the bottom. See it? Now click on it to zoom in. And you’ll get more beige.

[Beowulf9]

I went to the NASA website, saw this and was about to come back here and say the photo didn’t come through.

I’m no rocket scientist.

[plsvn]

I think the photo is raaacist.

[doorgunner69]

Hmm, I get no pic from the NASA link or your post

[glennaro]

What the hell is “average color”? How would you measure it? How do you know if you got it right and, if you did, how many zeptoseconds (10E-21 seconds) would elapse before it changed again?

[wildcard_redneck]

What? The color of the universe isn’t rainbow? The gaystapo will put an end to this.

[MtnClimber]

I don’t know why they would post this unless Webb and Hubble failed and their archives got hacked. Maybe it is payback for Trump winning.

[2111USMC]

This color has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent.

And they know this how?

[unlearner]

LOL

[Blogatron]

Racist!