Astronomers have determined exactly what colour our home galaxy the Milky Way is, and find it is aptly named.
They wanted to find out how our galaxy looked from the outside - a difficult task given the Earth is inside it.
A comparison of star types in other galaxies gives perhaps an unsurprising result: white. But not just any white - specifically, like spring snow at an hour after sunrise or before sunset.
The finding was announced at the 219th American Astronomical Society meeting.
For astronomers, one of the most important parameters is actually the colour of the galaxy, Jeffrey Newman of the University of Pittsburgh told BBC News.
That tells us basically how old the stars in the galaxy are, how recently it's been forming stars - are they forming today or did its stars form billions and billions of years ago?
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16523528
They wanted to find out how our galaxy looked from the outside - a difficult task given the Earth is inside it.
A comparison of star types in other galaxies gives perhaps an unsurprising result: white. But not just any white - specifically, like spring snow at an hour after sunrise or before sunset.
The finding was announced at the 219th American Astronomical Society meeting.
For astronomers, one of the most important parameters is actually the colour of the galaxy, Jeffrey Newman of the University of Pittsburgh told BBC News.
That tells us basically how old the stars in the galaxy are, how recently it's been forming stars - are they forming today or did its stars form billions and billions of years ago?
Full article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16523528
