After we see photos from Hubble or JWST, they present the Universe in a sequence of good colours. However what do these colours actually inform us?
For only a second, I need you to shut your eyes and take into consideration essentially the most well-known, most spectacular photographs of the Universe that you simply’ve ever seen. Did you image planets or moons inside our Photo voltaic System? Maybe you considered nebulous areas of gasoline, the place new stars are forming inside. Perhaps a snapshot of a just lately deceased star, equivalent to a planetary nebula or a supernova remnant, is what finest captured your creativeness. Alternatively, perhaps you considered glittering collections of stars and even total galaxies, or — my private favourite — a deep-field view of the Universe, full with galaxies of all totally different sizes, shapes, colours and brightnesses.
These full-color photographs aren’t essentially what your restricted human eyes would see, however are as an alternative color-coded in such a approach that they reveal a maximal quantity of details about these objects based mostly on the observations that have been acquired. Why do scientists and visible artists make the alternatives that they do? That’s what Elizabeth Belshaw desires to know, writing in to ask:
“After we see stars or galaxies from Hubble and Webb, they’re in…
