As with the objects that inhabit it, scientists have looked into the question of whether it is possible to determine certain properties of the universe, such as its temperature or its shape. But some astrophysicists have also wondered about the possibility of determining more original characteristics, such as its smell or color.
While scientists are trying to better understand the universe through sometimes complex theoretical models, they are also trying to explore all of its properties. Thus, in 2009, a team of astrophysicists from the Max Planck Institute reported the observation results of Sagittarius B2, a molecular cloud located in the center of the Milky Way; chemical analyzes revealed that the cloud was mainly made up of a particular ethyl compound, C3 H6 O2 , intervening in the perfume of raspberries and that of rum.
Beyond the smell of the universe, scientists have also tried to determine the color . Initially, this was not their main objective. In 2002, astrophysicists Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry, experts in galactic astrophysics at Johns Hopkins University, published the results of their work concerning the analysis of the spectra of 200,000 galaxies in order to study the formation of stars within these galaxies.
Like the Fraunhofer lines for the Sun, the dark discontinuities observed in the spectrum of galaxies allowed the two astrophysicists to identify and classify the stars according to their age and, from there, to determine the average age of each galaxy and star system. The study found that the majority of stars formed 5 billion years ago. With regard to the evolution of stars, the color of the universe has changed during its history, changing from blue to red at the same time as the blue giants evolved into red giants.
Glazebrook and Baldry then decide to combine all the spectral data of each galaxy by averaging the color of each spectrum, then they convert the final average color obtained into a color visible to the human eye . Initially, after several days of processing, the chromatic conversion software gives its verdict:the Universe is a pale greenish-white color, a kind of pale turquoise which the two scientists call "cosmic green spectrum".
However, two months later, a team of Johns Hopkins engineers reanalyze Glazebrook and Baldry's data with an improved version of the conversion software and realize that the two astrophysicists have made a mistake. Specifically, an error attributable to the previous version of the software; during the first conversion, the latter mistakenly selected a non-standard white in his chromatic palette and, by mixing it with the other spectral colors, thus obtained a pale turquoise. Performing a new conversion using, this time, a correct standard white, the results revealed a pale beige color (hexadecimal code #FFF8E7) for the Universe.
Following this change, Glazebrook and Baldry launched a contest to find an original name for this color, as they did not want to keep the simple name "beige". Several scientists (astrophysicists from Johns Hopkins University) thus propose different names and vote. The following results are established:
Although the name "Cappuccino Cosmico" received the most votes, it was the name "Cosmic Latte which was retained. The reason is that "Latteo" means "Milk" in Italian, the native language of Galileo. Also, in Italian, "Milky Way" is "Via Lattea", and voters wanted to make the connection between the color of the Universe and our galaxy, which is part of the Universe.
