Saturday 31 March 2012

Cosmic Latte - Not an awesome coffee

If you look up at the sky at night, you would probably see a darkish looking sky with specks of white light (or just an orange haze if you are near a street lamp). So if you were to ask someone what colour the universe was, they might well say 'Black'. In fact, astronomers at John Hopkins University decided the universe was 'Cosmic Latte' which is kind of beige-y like:
 (Image from articlesbase.com)
Its code is #FFF8E7 (which means nothing to me... :/) Interestingly enough, the other names that it could have been called were 'Big Bang Blush', 'Astronomical Almond' (there is a lot of alliteration here...), 'Cappuccino Cosmico' (apparently scientists drink a lot of coffee) and my personal favourite 'Skyvory' which does sound rather nice.

It's these kind of important scientific discoveries that push the boundaries of paint manufacture! Technological advances like these are vita for our society! Okay, they were actually looking at emission spectrum, which shows what light stars give out and (using some chemistry-physics emission of light from electrons thing) that shows what the star is made of and (using some physics life cycles of the stars thing) shows a bit about the history and type of star.

Anyway, as far as I can see for a quick Google search, there is not a cosmic latte pencil or crayon and no cosmic latte paint so any representatives of Crayola or a paint company out there, there is a gap in the market of the colour spectrum that hasn't been filled! Think of the advertising: 'With this crayon, you too can draw the whole of the universe!' or 'Our new paint gives the feel of having all the space in the universe'. Anyway, what do you think? Would you like a cosmic latte coloured kitchen?

P.S. If you want to read more, the website with the astronomers' comments is here: http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~kgb/cosspec/

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