| Cosmic Latte is the name given to the average | | | | Without further ado, here it is: |
| color of universe, which I came across recently | | | | |
| on Nasa's Astronomy Picture of the Day. I | | | | A bit of right-clickery and a quick paste into a |
| wondered, rather pointlessly perhaps, what would | | | | graphics package reveals the RGB hex value to |
| its RGB code value be? | | | | be 0xFFF8E6, thus satisfying my own curiosity. |
| Back in 2002, after computationally averaging the | | | | Paint manufacturers take note—cosmic latte is |
| light emitted by 200,000 galaxies, scientists at the | | | | the new magnolia! |
| Johns Hopkins University proudly announced that | | | | At the time, a contest to name the color was |
| the result was... err, green. Not the color you | | | | held by the researchers, and after the |
| would usually expect of a latte. | | | | suggestions cappuccino cosmico and big bang buff |
| In case you're wondering what kind of putrid | | | | received the most votes, cosmic latte was duly |
| coffee the staff at Johns Hopkins University have | | | | declared the winner instead—presumably |
| to endure, they quickly realized they had made a | | | | because the judges just thought it sounded |
| mistake, but only after a number of major news | | | | better. |
| organizations had published various interpretations | | | | Although a light beige today, the average color of |
| of the sea-green color they had erroneously | | | | the universe would have been blue in the distant |
| calculated. In fact, a faulty algorithm in the | | | | past, and will gradually change to red as the stars |
| software they were using had given them the | | | | continue to cool and the universe heads towards |
| wrong answer. | | | | its inexorable heat death. Fortunately this is a long |
| After correcting the mistake, the true color of | | | | way off, some 1 to 10 trillion years by some |
| the universe was revealed to be a glorious beige. | | | | estimates. So we're OK just yet. |