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Why Everyone Thought Space Was Blue Until the 1950s

2026-06-30 Science & Technology
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Anton Petrov
Anton Petrov
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Support this channel on Patreon to help me make this a full time job: https://www.patreon.com/whatdamath (Unreleased videos, extra footage, DMs, no ads) Alternatively, PayPal donations can be sent here: http://paypal.me/whatdamath Get a Wonderful Person Tee: https://teespring.com/stores/whatdamath More cool designs are on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3QFIrFX Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about our perception of space Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4f1Y4Ntq7s https://www.durham.ac.uk/staff/vladimir-brljak/ https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.1017/rqx.2025.56 0:00 We thought space was very different until recently 1:10 Cartoons and movies from 1950s and 60s 3:00 Studies about space age and media 3:50 How all of this seen before 7:00 How we transformed our views 7:30 First people to see space (not Gagarin) 9:40 Huge psychological shock and the Earthrise photo 10:55 Why this is important and what it shows us #earth #space #nightsky Enjoy and please subscribe Bitcoin/Ethereum to spare? Donate them here to help this channel grow! bc1qnkl3nk0zt7w0xzrgur9pnkcduj7a3xxllcn7d4 or ETH: 0x60f088B10b03115405d313f964BeA93eF0Bd3DbF The hardware used to record these videos: New Camera: https://amzn.to/4pCVINS CPU: https://amzn.to/4qXIaxC Video Card: https://amzn.to/2M1W26C Motherboard: https://amzn.to/2JYGiQQ RAM: https://amzn.to/2Mwy2t4 PSU: https://amzn.to/2LZcrIH Case: https://amzn.to/2MwJZz4 Microphone: https://amzn.to/2t5jTv0 Mixer: https://amzn.to/2JOL0oF Recording and Editing: https://amzn.to/2LX6uvU Some of the above are affiliate links, meaning I would get a (very small) percentage of the price paid. Thank you to all Patreon supporters of this channel Special thanks also goes to all the wonderful supporters of the channel through YouTube Memberships Credit: Mark Garlick www.markgarlick.com Licenses used: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ and relevant Creative Commons licenses

Top Comments (10)

@davegungan 2026-06-30

I honestly thought that blue colour was for the illustration and cartoons, rather than what they actually thought the colour of space was. Thanks again Anton!

218 16 replies
@jlangevin65 2026-06-30

I'm 61 and I've never heard of this. I've always thought of space as dark and I assumed that any other representation was an artistic choice or an artifact of the limitations of early special effects.

160 11 replies
@O4C209 2026-06-30

I'm not sure about this one. It is a common art technique to use blue for lighting black. Look at Superman's black hair in old comics, it has blue highlights.

110 6 replies
@TeWa67 2026-06-30

I remember Duck Dodgers! I seem to recall though that he claimed it was the 24th and a half century lol

32 6 replies
@xnonsuchx 2026-07-01

I always just assumed blueish space in old cartoons and such was an artistic choice for contrast not being too drastic or something like that.

25
@mattdamutt5681 2026-06-30

On one hand, you'd think nighttime was an obvious clue... But on the other hand, repeatedly observing the blue sky during the day and knowing the sun always shines when you can observe it, I can understand the connection and reasoning.

16
@Chillitilli 2026-07-01

How could anyone think space would be blue when looking at the stars at night or through any telescope?? I simply can't believe it.

12 3 replies
@johnboleyjr.1698 2026-07-01

I noticed the use of Blue to represent space as a kid, but until now, I always thought it was an artistic choice.

11
@Pickle-oh 2026-06-30

Anton Petrov, the physisist, educator, entertainer, youtuber, wonderful person, and now philospher? Love to see people who generally cover hard science show off their soft science side as well <3

9
@equivalentexchange4918 2026-07-01

I always thought they just drew it that way cuz of artistic depictions, cuz just having pitch black background everywhere isn't really the best looking for animations

5

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