Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Emmy Rossum and Rob Lowe are just a handful of celebrities compelled to weigh in on a great online debate: is the dress black and blue or white and gold?

What Color Is The Dress?

The great debate began when a photo of a dress was posted on Tumblr with the caption, “Guys please help me – is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the f—k out.”

The dress went viral, with people on Twitter arguing over whether the dress was white and gold or blue and black. The debate got so heated, even celebrities took note and felt compelled to weigh in. Some, like Taylor Swift, Mindy Kaling and Jaden Smith, declared that the dress was black and blue.

But others, including Jimmy Fallon, Kat Dennings, BJ Novak and Julianne Moore saw the dress as white and gold.

Some celebrities saw both colors:

And others dismissed the debate entirely:

Science Reveals Why The Dress Appears Different Colors

While the debate on Twitter rages on, with multiple trending topics, including #TheDress, #whiteandgold, #blackandblue and #DressGate, science has stepped in to explain why people might be seeing the dress differently. Essentially, every person who looks at the photo processes the wavelengths of the color differently, and, while small variations in how people perceive color is normal, this appears to be an extreme case.

“Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance [the dress],” explained Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist.

Meanwhile, all real controversy has been put to rest after an original photo of a woman wearing The Dress surfaced, proving the dress to be blue and black. Of course, this being the Internet, conspiracy theories are bound to continue.

#DressGate