The "blue" and the "green" are actually the SAME COLOR. The RGB numbers are 0, 255, 150, which for convenience we will call bluish-green (see small inset, left, which contains a sample from the greenish arm and one from the bluish arm).
The reason the spiral arms appear different colors is that when the bluish-green is embedded in purple in looks blue, and when embedded in orange it looks green - as shown in the bottom magnified view.
There is more explanation of this fascinating optical illusion at the
Discover Magazine link, and some discussion at
Neatorama. Via
J-Walk.
Thanks for this. I saw the spiral yesterday and thought it was a hoax. By zooming in and including the RGB codes, it really made it reasonable and real for me. Good work!
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