The Average Color of the Universe


	The Average Color of the Universe

Mohir

11-2-2009 7:08 AM

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tags:

astronomy

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11-3-2009 5:00 AM

Fast T friend

Admittedly, skyvory sounds better, but a beige universe?...

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/a685ec07-c5cf-4d06-84dd-bb5495d2a57b/48DAE735-8BF9-4C2C-A307-33B58D852855/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091101.html" href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091101.html" style="font-size: 11px;">antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091101.html"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/img/022C9BCF-8C6F-4D1E-A151-3600276E93C4" alt="See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
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<B> Explanation: </B>
What color is the universe?  
More precisely, if the
<A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020310.html" linkindex="5">entire sky</A> were smeared out,
what color would the final mix be?  
This <A href="http://space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/color_universe_020625-1.html" linkindex="6">whimsical question</A> came up when trying to determine
what stars are commonplace in nearby galaxies.
The answer,
<A href="http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/" linkindex="7">depicted above</A>,
is a <A href="http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/color/gamma_correction/gamma.web.html" linkindex="8">conditionally perceived shade</A> of
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beige" linkindex="9">beige</A>.  
To determine this, astronomers computationally averaged
the light emitted by one of the largest sample of
<A href="http://www.seds.org/messier/galaxy.html" linkindex="10">galaxies</A>
yet analyzed: the 200,000
<A href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010904.html" linkindex="11">galaxies</A> of the
<A href="http://msowww.anu.edu.au/2dFGRS/" linkindex="12">2dF survey</A>.  
The resulting
<A href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002ApJ...569..582B" linkindex="13">cosmic
spectrum</A> has some emission in all parts of the
<A href="http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html" linkindex="14">electromagnetic spectrum</A>, but a single perceived composite color.  
<A href="http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/cie+cosspec.jpg" linkindex="15">This color</A> has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years,
indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent.  
In a <A href="http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/topten.htm" linkindex="16">contest</A> to better name the color, notable entries
included skyvory, univeige, and the winner:
<A href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_latte" linkindex="17">cosmic latte</A>.
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