[wordup] The color of the universe

[Adam Shand]

From: http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/globe_story.html?uri=/dailyglobe2/085/science/The_complexion_of_the_cosmos_is_decidedly_salmon-.shtml

The complexion of the cosmos is decidedly salmon

By Cindy Rodriguez, Globe Staff

It's a scientific discovery that won't change the universe, just maybe
the way we dream about it.

Astronomers, color scientists, and physicists have sparred over the past
two months over the color of the cosmos. The story began with turquoise,
turned to beige, and ended, so far, with salmon.

While they all agree the real color is close to white, they were curious
about what it would look like in daylight on Earth. It's not a question
that has much scientific value, but it captures the imagination of many.

''There was so much interest around it,'' said Ivan Baldry, an
astronomer at Johns Hopkins University who presented the initial finding
that the galaxies were turquoise, only to have to later acknowledge that
he and a colleague goofed. ''It's the kind of thing people want to talk
about at cocktail parties.''

It all started in early January when Baldry and Karl Glazebrook, both
astronomers at Johns Hopkins University, presented a paper on the
evolution of the cosmos at the American Astronomical Society meeting in
Washington. They wanted to end their presentation with a bang, so they
told the audience they had calculated what the ''average'' color of 400
galaxies would look like if seen in daylight.

That color, turquoise, caused a stir among scientists who wondered how
that could be. Meanwhile, the news was reported in the media and was
greeted by the general public with fanfare. People reveled in the idea.
Turquoise is serene, warm - a color Martha Stewart would approve.

But color scientists - those who have studied the complexities of
understanding how light, reflection and surrounding hues affect the
colors the human eye can see - knew off the bat that the astronomers
were wrong. They asked, how could the average color be greenish-blue
when stars don't radiate green? Hot, young stars radiate blue. Older
ones give off a reddish hue. But in deep space, many stars often appear
whitish-gray.

E-mails bounced from all over the world to Baldry and Karl Glazebrook,
the duo from Johns Hopkins, telling them they must be wrong. In a few
days, after consulting with color scientists, Glazebrook and Baldry
realized they had miscalculated. They learned the free computer software
they used to make the calculation had mistakenly steered them toward
turquoise, and they missed a step during their calculations, which made
the color appear even more green. They recalculated and, with
embarrassment, announced another color - beige. The news was met with a
thump. Beige is boring, after all.

But it turns out that beige is also wrong. The astronomers - who are not
well-versed in the intricacies of color science - erred as they
calculated colors on the computer screen: They failed to factor in the
right amount of white daylight.

So Brill asked a friend, Ed Kelley, a physicist at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, to run a test using a
spectroradiometer, a device that measures the visible spectrum. The
device, larger than a camcorder, calculated the color coordinates and
found that the new color is not beige. In fact, the average color of 400
galaxies, if viewed by man on Earth, is really salmon, more technically
known as daylight-65 gamma.

''We're finally done with the debate. It's salmon, which makes a lot of
sense,'' said Michael Brill, a color scientist who works for McClendon
Automation Inc., which develops software systems mostly for the federal
government. It's not because there are more red stars than blue stars in
the universe, though. Salmon is the way the human eye interprets the
universe's color, which actually has green tones, when viewed in
daylight.

Baldry, an astronomer who wants to put the issue aside so he can get on
with the more important work of understanding the evolution of the
cosmos, said he defers to Brill and Mark Fairchild, a color scientist at
the Munsell Color Science Laboratories at the Rochester Institute of
Technology.

Meanwhile, the news that the galaxy is beige took off. Baldry and
Glazebrook even started a contest on their Web site,
www.pha.jhu.edu/TIkgb/

cosspec/, asking people to name the color. They got more than 200
suggestions, including big-bang beige, galactic khaki, astronomical
almond, and Baldry's favorite, cosmic latte.

''There are still going to be people who will say it's beige because
they have committed themselves to it,'' Brill said. He praised Baldry
and Glazebrook for conceding the mistake, something scientists are
sometimes reluctant to do.

Fairchild, a color scientist who originally believed beige was the right
color, said he now agrees with Brill. But others think the whole concept
is ridiculous. Ken Brecher, an astrophysicist at Boston University, said
that how the galaxy would look on Earth, during daylight, is irrelevant.
It's how it appears in the galaxy that is important. It would be very
close to white, or a grayish white, he said. Most scientists agree. But
that isn't news.

In the wake of Sept. 11, figuring out how the average color of the
cosmos would appear to people on Earth during daylight is a ''beautiful
idea that promised peace and harmony,'' Brill said. ''We sorely need a
balm such as the color of the universe, whether it be a tranquil green
or even a noncommittal beige.'' Or, as it now seems, the simple and
sweet color of salmon.

Cindy Rodriguez can be reached at rodriguez at globe.com.