Illustration by Diana Gerstacker; Photo by David Menidrey/ Unsplash
We tend to think of space as cold and dark, but that’s only because most stars are light-years away from the pale blue dot we call home. The universe is actually quite bright on the whole, and its color has been given an appropriately celestial name: “cosmic latte.” In 2002, astronomers at Johns Hopkins University determined the shade after studying the light emitted by 200,000 different galaxies. They held a contest to give the result — a kind of creamy beige — its evocative moniker. (Other entries in the contest included “univeige” and “skyvory.”)
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It's a factAstronomers know that the universe continues to expand, though they disagree on how rapidly that’s occurring. One recent study says that it’s growing at a rate of 73.3 kilometers per second per megaparsec, with a megaparsec being about 3.3 million light-years — so, pretty fast.
As with just about everything in the universe, however, the color isn’t fixed: It’s become less blue and more red over the last 10 billion years, likely as a result of redder stars becoming more prevalent. In another 10 billion years, we may even need to rename the color entirely.
Numbers Don't Lie
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Coffee beans are actually the ______ of the coffee plant's berries.
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Coffee beans are actually the seeds of the coffee plant's berries.
NASA didn’t really spend millions of dollars developing a pen that could write in space.
The second half of this oft-cited myth contrasts NASA’s supposed approach with that of the Soviet Union, who are said to have simply given their cosmonauts pencils. American astronauts did likewise, though NASA wasn’t always thrilled about it — pencils are flammable, and their tips breaking off could lead to damage on sensitive equipment. The so-called space pens actually came from the Fisher Pen Company, which offered its AG-7 “Anti-Gravity” pen to NASA in 1965. None of the investment money came from the government, however, and astronauts and cosmonauts alike ended up using the writing tools at a cost of $2.39 per pen.
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
