Cosmic latte

We have all felt a great admiration for the universe and the phenomena contained in it. Many things raise endless questions for us, which at first glance seem to have an answer, but when looked at more closely, we realize that they are not so simple. One of those questions revolves around the color of the universe, and no, the answer is not black.

In 2001, Johns Hopkins University astronomers Ivan Baldry and Karl Glazebrook conducted an analysis of more than 200,000 galaxies to study the origin of stars and their age. However, far from ending there, this work also answered one of the most curious questions in history: What color is the universe?

After "averaging" and synthesizing all the possible colors in the universe - that is, the light of more than 200,000 galaxies, with their stars, nebulae, and other bodies - they entered the data into software that, in January 2002, produced cosmic turquoise. Unfortunately, the cosmic turquoise was a wrong result because the program had set the “white point” incorrectly, that is, the shade it takes as the reference for white when calculating the color.

In March 2002, after fixing the program's error with the help of color-science specialists, they obtained the incredible cosmic latte, a color very similar to beige, but which, without a doubt, was the color of the universe. The change was announced in a Johns Hopkins University press release, and the name was later reported by the Washington Post.

A curious name

The astronomers asked the public for name suggestions by email, on the single condition that it not be “beige”. Peter Drum, who was following the news, noticed the great similarity between his latte and the color obtained and proposed “Cosmic Latte”, the same name Rees Bear suggested. The astronomers chose it from among the proposals they received.

Now you know what the color of the universe is. Keep feeding on scientific cookies!