Slashdot Mirror
Universe Beige, not Turquoise
ChazeFroy writes: "The universe is actually beige, not turquoise. Researchers at John Hopkins University initially reported it was turquoise, but the software they used contained a flaw that implemented a non-standard white index to arrive at the mint chocolate chip green color." The other color was much nicer than this beige.
...when she said "Beige, I think I'll paint the ceiling beige..."
The GIMP tells me that the colour of the universe is #FEF9E5 in hex. Now that's got to mean something :-p
42........ Nope doesn't work. Beige... hmmm
Before you may cross the bridge you must answer these questions three.
Q: Where are you from?
A: Johns Hopkins University.
Q: What is your professtion?
A: We are astronomers.
Q: What color is the Universe?
A:It's green... no, it's beige AAAAAAAaaaaaaaaiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Use Plank's constant to find out what the peak wavelength at 3 degrees Kelvin (the cosmic bg temp) is. This is the color of the Universe, as it is the color you "see" in all directions (if your eyes could see this wavelength, that is).
dinner: it's what's for beer
the question is not what color the universe is, but how to change it.
But most of the energy in the universe is NOT from the CMB. Remember the Stefan-Boltzmann law: energy per unit area goes like sigma T^4. 3 K is barely a blimp. The billions of stars in each of the billions of galaxies are at 1500 K or more (the sun is 5800 K, blue stars are hotter still). That T^4 comes in like a demon and means that most of the energy we perceive does NOT come from the CMB.
I'm glad they cleared that up. For a while, there, I was really worried.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Funny how you didn't click all the links.
From Glazebrook's page:
"We admit the color of the Universe was something of a gimmick, to try and make our story on spectra more accessible. Nevertheless it is an actual calculable thing so we believe it is important to get it right."
And:
"Of course, our real motive for calculating the cosmic spectrum was really a lot more than producing these pretty color pictures. The color is interesting but in fact the cosmic spectrum is rich in detail and tells us a lot more about the history of star formation in the Universe. You may have noticed above that the cosmic spectrum contains dark lines and bright bands, these correspond to the characteristic emission and absorption of different elements."
So this actually reveals something about the makeup and history of the universe. Viola, science!
Si vis pacem, para bellum
The only thing more annoying than a Libertarian is an (un|mis)informed Libertarian
However, this isn't what you see from earth at all. Originally I thought they had simulated what would happen if you could "funnel" all the starlight on a dark night visible from Earth (or even outside our atmosphere) and created one beam from it. They've sort of done this, but in their model they've stopped the expansion of the universe and "corrected" the light to make it appear as if the universe is static and all those galaxies are not actually moving away from us.
So, I'm not sure what to make of this color - it's not one you'd ever actually see: it's not "real" in the sense you could measure it somewhere.
Please Rate my comment (and help support Fre
Hi this is Glazebrook here (honest!)
I am a regular slashdot reader for my sins. Finally an incentive to actually sign up.
I am amused to see the story got on the front pages this time, sorry that I had to be wrong to achieve this feat!
hope you all read the web page and about the science of starlight (and color!)
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/
and it's much more complicated than 'averaging 3 numbers'. The color is a volume-averaged - deredshifted (otherwise it would not be very meaningful) sum of all starlight. Those of you with www skills will be able to track down the origin of the erroneous software I will not deprecate it here.
Karl
p.s. the color suggestions are poring in, my favorite so far is 'cosmic latte'
(reality distortion field takes effect)
Researcher 1: Hey, I think the universe is that greenish color.
Jobs: It's called Bondi, you twit!
Researcher 2: Nah, I think it's more bluish.
Jobs: (Jumping up and down furiously) AQUA! AQUA! AQUA!
Researcher 1: Let's just call it turquoise.
(after Jobs returns to Cupertino to plot his domination of the universe's color...)
Researcher 2: What the hell were we thinking? The universe is beige, not turquoise! Duh! We'd better change our report. What? 'It looks like you're trying to change the color of the universe?' Stupid paper clip.