Alipasha Imanivala

How astronomers take Galactic images

When a telescope takes a picture of deep space, it doesn't take it in color. Modern telescopes are
equipped with digital cameras that employ CCD (charge-coupled device) sensors to take images
consisting of grayscale pixels -- which leads many to believe that the colored images we see
from telescopes such as the Hubble aren't actually real.

It's true that the images captured are laid down in black and white -- but that doesn't mean that
the telescope has no way of knowing how it is actually colored. Hubble, in fact, has a number of
different filters, each of which allow light on a specific wavelength or number of wavelengths. A
narrow-band filter, for example, will only let through a very small portion of the spectrum, while
a broad-band filter will let through a large portion -- for example, all the red and green areas of
the spectrum.

This means that the telescope can

take a number of pictures of the
same object using a variety of
filters. One image might show only
light on the blue area of the
spectrum, while another shows
yellow, and so on. These resultant
images can be combined for a full-
color composite.

Galaxies are usually photographed in broad-band. These allow more light to get through, and
create the closest approximation to what a human might see, where he or she cruising by in a
spaceship. Nebulae, on the other hand, are usually photographed in the narrow-band, which
produces very sharply defined details -- and more exaggerated color than we'd expect to see
without own eyes. This is because the telescope camera will take long exposures to pick out
colors that are actually too faint for the human eye to see.
 Alipasha Imanivala

While it is true that this does result in some glorious images, there's a practical purpose: a reddish
tint in a nebula might indicate the presence of Sulphur, while blue might signal oxygen and green
might signal hydrogen. However, without color enhancement, all three gases correspond to
different shades of red -- which makes a nebula's composition more difficult to ascertain. All the
detectors on the Hubble telescope are photodetectors since the information must be digitized for
transmission to Earth.

Finally, some images are taken purely in spectra invisible to the naked human eye altogether:
infrared and ultraviolet. These allow researchers not only to see through dense obstructions --
such as dark nebulae -- but also analyze various behaviors, such as heat signatures. However,
because these spectra are invisible, the researchers assign visible light colors to various
wavelengths in order to view them clearly.

Starr, Michelle. “How the Hubble Telescope Captures the Color out of Space.” CNET,
MICHELLE STARR, 9 Sept. 2014, www.cnet.com/news/how-and-why-are-the-hubble-
telescope-images-coloured/.