Cosmic latte: The average colour of the Universe is beige



The Universe may appear like a vast expanse of darkness but the average colour is actually beige, according to scientists.



They studied the colour of light emitted by 200,000 galaxies to see what the final mix would be if the entire sky was smeared out.

This beige shade, according to Nasa scientists, is the average colour of the universe

The answer is a bland 'cosmic latte' that wouldn't look out of place in new builds across the country. Other name suggestions include 'skyvory' and 'univeige'.

However, this colour has become much less blue over the past 10 billion years, indicating that redder stars are becoming more prevalent.

Star colour is primarily an indication of temperature. Hot stars appear blue because most energy is emitted in the bluer parts of the spectrum. As there is little emission in the blue parts of the spectrum for cooler stars they appear red.



American astrophysicians Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry came up with the beige colour by creating a cosmic spectrum before blending it according to what the human eye would see.

The heart of the Milky Way taken using the Very Large Telescope. The Universe has become less blue over the past 10 billion years with red stars becoming more prevalent

Dr Baldry, who described the research as 'a bit of fun' said: 'We believe that the survey is large enough, reaching out several billion light years, to make this a truly representative sample. Really the answer is very close to white.



'Our real motive for calculating the cosmic spectrum was really a lot more than producing this one colour.



'The colour 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.'

The findings suggested the Universe has changed in colour over six billion years from pale turquoise to beige.



Now it varies between a pale pink, cream and a soft turquoise colour depending on the adaptation of the eye to different amounts of light.



For those redecorating to recreate the Universe at home, cosmic latte is somewhere in the middle.