The discovery
In 2002, two astronomers averaged the light of the universe.
Karl Glazebrook and Ivan Baldry of Johns Hopkins University took the spectra of 200,000 galaxies from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey and combined them into a single measurement: the average color of all the light in the observable universe.
Their first answer, famously, was mint green — a white-point bug in the software. When they corrected it, the true color of everything turned out to be a pale, milky cream. The public was invited to name it. Among the finalists: cappuccino cosmico, univeige, skyvory.
Cosmic latte won. The universe is the color of milk stirred into coffee.
λ average · turquoise retracted · beige confirmed · 2002
Every star that has ever burned, averaged together, comes out the color of your morning latte. We think that deserves a mug.