Color of the Universe

As readers can probably guess by looking at the logo bar on this page, I like colors and spectra. So I loved reading about the color of the universe:

According to Karl Glazebrook & Ivan Baldry, astronomers at Johns Hopkins University, the universe is green. Sooner or later (like in a few billion years), the universe will be red. This is their chart, which shows the color of the universe (the left and right colors are for comparison):

comparison.png

Lest you think the search for the color of the universe was a quest for new and improved paint colors, researchers say, "The cosmic spectrum tells us about the history of star-formation in the Universe." The decimal RGB equivalents are 0.269, 0.388, 0.342.

Glazebrook and Baldry used John Walker's "Colour Rendering of Spectra" work to figure out the RGB equivalents.

I think the universe was a much prettier color about six billion years ago.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/11/02 at 10:21 AM

  1. This is fascinating.  I just heard about this on the radio yesterday, and it astounds me that anyone can even begin to divine the colors of the cosmos. Truly incredible. Great topic.

    Posted by Bob Boyd  on  01/12  at  07:51 AM
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