(Stop Press !!) The Universe is not turquoise - it's beige

New Scientist ^ | March 7, 2002 | Eugenie Samuel

[Oxylus]

In January, the true colour of the Universe was declared as somewhere between pale turquoise and aquamarine, by Ivan Baldry and Karl Glazebrook at John Hopkin's University in Baltimore Maryland.

They determined the cosmic colour by combining light from over 200,000 galaxies within two billion light years of Earth. The data came from the Australian 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey at the Anglo-Australian Observatory in New South Wales, Australia.

The new colour is much more subdued

Glazebrook now says the true colour this data gives is closer to beige. "I'm very embarrassed," he says, "I don't like being wrong."

The mistake was caused by a bug in the software Glazebrook had used to convert the cosmic spectrum into the colour the human eye would see if it was exposed to it. "There's no error in the science, the error was in the perception," says Glazebrook.

Wrong shade of white

Glazebrook has now teamed up with Mark Fairchild of the Munsell Color Science Laboratory at the University of Rochester in New York, who pointed out his mistake last month.

Fairchild realized the software Glazebrook was using actually took a slightly pinky looking colour as white. "There was a huge green shift due to the erroneous white point," he says.

When this was corrected, the colour was actually on the pinky side of white, a slight beige colour. Fairchild now hopes to test the software model by generating an exact replication of the cosmic spectrum light and shining it into someone's eye, so they can experience the true colour of the Universe. But Glazebrook is confident this time. "It won't change again," he says.

The John Hopkins group were using the cosmic spectrum - not the subjective colour it corresponds to - to trace the history of star formation in the Universe. Their scientific results are not affected by their mistake.

[Oxylus]

Sure. Obviously a ploy to confuse the enemy.

[Oxylus]

bump this correction

[order_of_reason]

Beige?? Aw, and I just bought drapes to complement the turquoise...

[Jen]

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[r9etb]

A real man wouldn't know the difference between "turquoise" and "bluish green." And beige?!? A man would call it light brown.

I think these astronomers must be effeminate.

[shadowman99]

Does the universe have track lighting?

[Ender@Game.now]

He had a color convulsion due to extreme heat caused by global cooling.....or .no..that was.......hey,it's hot in here.

[droid]

The true color of the universe.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

Darn, I just finished buying turquoise stuff to complement the universe. Ebay, here I come! < /sarcasm>

[LibWhacker]

Jesse Jackson isn't going to like this.

[blam]

Already Posted Here

[ko_kyi]

Dang, and I don't have a thing to wear that matches.

[Oxylus]

Already Posted Here

I might have known. I did a search first but nothing came up.

[pvt1863]

Just a fine point... This research (however pointless it may be) was done at The Johns Hopkins University... not John Hopkin's or John Hopkins. As a student at JHU, it just really bugs me when people get that wrong. So should I be proud that my school is tapping into the fashion conscience of the universe? And I thought my $32,000 a year tuition was going to waste. *rolling eyes*

[Thorondir]

Oh, darn! This changes all MY plans for the future!

[ThinkLikeWaterAndReeds]

In January, the true colour of the Universe was declared as somewhere between pale turquoise and aquamarine, by Ivan Baldry and Karl Glazebrook at John Hopkin's University in Baltimore Maryland

See there, now the obvious problem is that they were too near the ocean and the colors they saw were reflections of the ocean off our own atmosphere - sheeeeeeeeesh! If they had only been in Kansas they would have known the color was golden from the wheat reflections. Really now, the color is chartruse if you get out into it.

[blam]

"I might have known. I did a search first but nothing came up."

It's okay. We'll just get the word out twice as fast. (grin)

[Oxylus]

Just a fine point... This research (however pointless it may be) was done at The Johns Hopkins University... not John Hopkin's or John Hopkins. As a student at JHU, it just really bugs me when people get that wrong.

It's a good point. I just sent an email to The New Scientist on your behalf, without mentioning your name or email address, alerting the author Eugenie Samuel to the error.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from March 7, 2002. Thanks Oxylus.

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[Las Vegas Dave]

Oxylus’s last posting on FR was Tuesday, March 19, 2002, how did you find this thread?