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from the comes-in-colors-everywhere dept.
In 2001, some physicists put their heads together and asked: “What is the color of the Universe?”
By this they meant what color would an observer see, “if they had the Universe in a box, and could see all the light at once.”
“And,” they added, as if that question was too simple, “it wasn't moving.” They added this bit because, because of the Doppler effect, stars that are receding from Earth are redshifted – i.e. they appear redder than if they weren’t moving, relative to us.
Even though, as New Scientist observed, the question might seem about as useful as “the ‘answer’ to life, the Universe and everything given in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - 42,” the astronomers knew the spectral analysis would help them trace the history of star formation. So they forged ahead with the calculations and, in January 2002, captured the public’s attention when they announced their result.
“In space no one can hear you scream, which is probably a good thing,” the Guardian wrote in their coverage, “as scientists have discovered that the universe is a shade of turquoise.”
The Guardian’s reporter might have been glib, but many others embraced the color. The real problem was, the universe isn’t turquoise. The scientists had gotten it wrong.
http://priceonomics.com/what-is-the-average-color-of-the-universe/
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 29 2015, @02:49PM
I remember this. The scientists had gotten it wrong, realized shortly that they'd made a mistake, tried again and published a correction. Non-news... or perhaps an example of the Scientific Method at work. TFA even mentions that they'd fixed it "two months later".
Why is it being brought up again 12 years later? Perhaps a better question - why leave end the quote with simply "The scientists had gotten it wrong" without completing the thought?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 29 2015, @06:42PM
Some of the universe is unobservable anyway due to the expansion of the universe. So they can't really say what the color is.