The colors are assigned to specific frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum given that all Hubble images are monochromatic. The telescope's cameras use narrow band filters to observe those frequency ranges only and block all others.
This is a poor description of how the images are captured. Hubble would take multiple images at different frequencies, but the colors assigned were rarely arbitrary. The frequencies were combined to match what the eye would see unless there was some scientific need to exaggerate one.
And yet people have used descriptions like yours to say that all color images from space are faked and that artists in NASA arbitrarily "paint" the images with whatever color they want.
It is a description that leads to misunderstanding.
Hubble uses a standard mirror, so the light gathered was primarily in the visible spectrum.
JWST uses a gold mirror to enhance infrared, but they don't just use a broad brush of the EM spectrum. Those kind of images are combined from specialty scopes like X-ray or Radio scopes
Oh, and by the way, your cell phone camera combines different parts of the EM spectrum in the same way, all digital cameras do. Even your eyes do that with different frequencies captured by the rods and cones.
Welcome Ziyan!
I love astronomy pictures but I worry these days that people are faking them with AI. Please include a link to the original source whenever possible so that I can enjoy the image without worrying about whether it is real.
Hubble only takes black & white photos. This is a real image of something that really exists in space, but the photo is colorized by computer. I think these images are also much more vivid than the naked eye could see. All the technology helps us see the mind-blowing things that r really out there!
Oversimplification. All digital cameras only take B&W images, but with filters that separate light into different colors that get recombined in software. With Hubble, this is done with filters for colors specific to #Astrophotography. With a cell phone or handheld camera, it's Red, Green, and Blue.
Another difference is that a scientific camera like on Hubble will take separate images through each of several filters, one at a time, whereas commercial cameras record Red Green and Blue data at the same time, by having millions of tiny microfilters over the pixels. Which I find mind boggling….
These are called nebula's.
A nebula is a celestial masterpiece, a breathtaking cloud of gas and dust where stars are born and reborn, enriching the cosmos with their vibrant colours.
I dream about this stuff all the time. The only space dreams I don’t like are the nightmares about planets or other massive objects crashing into Earth 😬😅.
Nebulae form from:
* Dying Stars: Explosions of massive stars (supernovae) or the gentle shedding of outer layers by smaller stars.
* Star Birth: Collapse of giant clouds of gas and dust in space.
I hope this helps you.
Comments
Nubbles being the scientific term for 2 or more adorable nebulas.
Happy New Year
The colors are assigned to specific frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum given that all Hubble images are monochromatic. The telescope's cameras use narrow band filters to observe those frequency ranges only and block all others.
I never said otherwise and everything that I said in my post was factually correct.
It is a description that leads to misunderstanding.
Just a hot button for me.
JWST uses a gold mirror to enhance infrared, but they don't just use a broad brush of the EM spectrum. Those kind of images are combined from specialty scopes like X-ray or Radio scopes
I love astronomy pictures but I worry these days that people are faking them with AI. Please include a link to the original source whenever possible so that I can enjoy the image without worrying about whether it is real.
Kinda of a silly question, but is this an actual photo taken via a camera of some sort or a conceptual imaging / art piece? Beautiful either way!
Beautiful and wondorous.
A nebula is a celestial masterpiece, a breathtaking cloud of gas and dust where stars are born and reborn, enriching the cosmos with their vibrant colours.
* Dying Stars: Explosions of massive stars (supernovae) or the gentle shedding of outer layers by smaller stars.
* Star Birth: Collapse of giant clouds of gas and dust in space.
I hope this helps you.
photo