White

If one had to do a census, perhaps the most common colors in the universe are red and blue. So if you’re looking at a gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope image and see lots of those two colors, it’s probably close to what your unaided eye would see. But a broad wash of green?

If most of the stars in a galaxy are blue, the galaxy will appear generally blue. If most of the stars are red, the galaxy will appear generally red. The general color of a galaxy can tell astronomers something about what types of stars the galaxy contains.

According to a new study by Newman and colleagues, the Milky Way really is milky white—or, more precisely, it’s the color of “fine-grain, new spring snow in the early morning or late evening, about an hour away from dawn or sunset.”

Turns out the Milky Way is aptly named, with the overall color of our galaxy resembling the shade of fine-grained spring snow in early morning light. Splitting the light into its component wavelengths, however, reveals a redder-than-average color for the Milky Way’s core, and sky-blue spiral arms.

The small galaxy of IC 1613, which is 2.3 million light-years away is notable for its lack of cosmic dust swirling among its scattered stars and the bright pink gas that gives it its unique color.

[+] The largest, R136a1, is approximately 260 times the Sun’s mass; the light from these hot, new, bright stars is predominantly blue, however. At first glance, it’s surprising, since there are no pink stars, and the majority of young starlight is preferentially blue.

The blue areas show the hottest, youngest stars, while the reddish-pink denotes lanes of dust that line the spiral arms. The orange center is made up of older stars.

The Pink Star, formerly known as the Steinmetz Pink, is a diamond weighing 59.60 carat (11.92 g), rated in color as Fancy Vivid Pink by the Gemological Institute of America. The Pink Star is the largest known diamond having been rated Vivid Pink.