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

NASA ^ | 28 Sep. 2026 | 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.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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Sorry, not such a great image today from NASA.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

Sorry, not such a great image today from NASA

[BenLurkin]

Not to be confused with Cosmic Slop.

[Red Badger]

So, the Universe is VANILLA?.............

[No name given]

That’s all right.

[bankwalker]

That’s racist ...

[MtnClimber]

In areas where there are no stars the average color is black.

[telescope115]

Galaxy Glue….

[dayglored]

> So, the Universe is VANILLA?.............

Regular Vanilla is whiter. This looks like French Vanilla.

Unless you're talking Breyer's Vanilla with Vanilla Bean, in which case it's stark white with black dots.

[goodnesswins]

Whatever...sheesh...NASA...this is kinda stupid...IMHO.

[FatherofFive]

is a conditionally perceived shade of beige. In computer parlance: #FFF8E7

Wow. If F=6 (the sixth letter) and E=5, then FFF8E7 is 666857

Sqrt(6*6) * 6 + 8 + 5 – 7 = 42, the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything

[Ahithophel]

Not to be confused with Cosmic Slop.

or Yellow Journalism.