Here's something you wouldn't think about too often: the color of the universe. If you could take a couple of steps 'outside' the universe and look at it, what color would it be? My first reaction was to think that it's mostly empty, so in the absence of anything (including light), what's left is just a void, therefore the color of the universe is primarily black, except for some really bright bits here and there. The problem with this is that technically speaking, black is not really a color at all, but merely the absence of the wavelengths of the visible light spectrum. At the other end, technically speaking, white is not a color either, but rather the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum. Whatever. With this in mind, one would be forced to think the universe is therefore mostly colorless, at which point many people would develop a slight headache, shrug their shoulders and say "who gives a toss anyway?" and walk away to do something far more constructive.

Not so in the case of a few intrepid astronomers at Johns Hopkins University.

It seems that 'mostly black or colorless' would be the wrong answer. It also seems that some people do actually give a toss about what color the universe is. Two months ago, this group of astronomers ran calculations through a spectrum of color schemes and concluded that on average the universe is pale turquoise, or just a shade greener (seriously). That's not the end of it though. This same group of astronomers now say that in reality the color of the universe, it turns out, is not so vivid after all. The universe is actually beige. Who would've thunk?

"We had a bug in our code," Dr. Glazebrook said in an interview. "The effect of the bug was to shift the color of everything toward the green. That's really embarrassing for us." ...really.

The astronomers, perhaps in denial, quibbled over whether the color was really beige or something even lighter, and in order to retain some self-respect, have labeled the color "IL1E Gamma". Good one guys. Photoshop identifies the hex value as #FFF8E7, just for your information.

Your tax dollar at work in a beige universe. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn't it?