5 ms·

They are synthesized, from the article "Image in mapped colors from the light emitted by an ionized elements, hydrogen = green, sulfur = red and oxygen = blue."

amelius 6y ago
What do the real colors look like?
- enriquto 6y ago
  just look up to the sky at night. They are so dim that you cannot really distinguish their hue.
  - amelius 6y ago
    When I look up to the sky at night I just see reflections of the lights emitted by my city. It often is an orange glow.
    - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
      This is too dystopian this early in the morning.
- elteto 6y ago
  Hard to tell without being closer :) Nebulae might not even emit that strongly in the spectrum that we humans can see. A lot of these pictures are taken with special narrowband filters that isolate wavelengths for specific components, such as Oxygen or Hydrogen. Then these narrowband images are combined and assigned to the R, G, B channels. A popular palette is the "Hubble Palette" because, well, that is what the Hubble uses.
- nsilvestri 6y ago
  Depends on the filter used. I am assuming the author is using one of these hydrogens (probably Hα) and O-III and S-II. Each of these black-and-white images with this filter are used as the data for a single RGB channel in an image. Their wavelengths are, and would like like to the naked eye [1]: Hα (656 nm) bright red Hβ (486 nm) deep blue O-III (496 nm and 501 nm) greenish blue to green S-II (672 nm) deeper red The color mapping the author uses is called the Hubble Space Telescope pallet, where hydrogen = green, sulfur = red, and oxygen = blue. [1] http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/code/wavelength_to_rgb/wavelength.html http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/code/wavelength_to_rgb/wave...
- dylan604 6y ago
  Depends on what you mean by real colors. The light is so faint, that human eyes cannot make it out. However, long exposure photography with a CMOS sensor will bring out colors without any filters. Are those the real colors? There are tons of examples of these types of shots. Search for The World At Night (TWAN) for some great examples
- ImprovedSilence 6y ago
  To the naked eye from earth, it looks black and white, and you wouldn't be able to see that much detail. What they "really" are is more complicated, as indicated by other responses.

amelius 6y ago

What do the real colors look like?

enriquto 6y ago
just look up to the sky at night. They are so dim that you cannot really distinguish their hue.
- amelius 6y ago
  When I look up to the sky at night I just see reflections of the lights emitted by my city. It often is an orange glow.
  - JohnJamesRambo 6y ago
    This is too dystopian this early in the morning.
elteto 6y ago
Hard to tell without being closer :) Nebulae might not even emit that strongly in the spectrum that we humans can see. A lot of these pictures are taken with special narrowband filters that isolate wavelengths for specific components, such as Oxygen or Hydrogen. Then these narrowband images are combined and assigned to the R, G, B channels. A popular palette is the "Hubble Palette" because, well, that is what the Hubble uses.
nsilvestri 6y ago
Depends on the filter used. I am assuming the author is using one of these hydrogens (probably Hα) and O-III and S-II. Each of these black-and-white images with this filter are used as the data for a single RGB channel in an image. Their wavelengths are, and would like like to the naked eye [1]: Hα (656 nm) bright red Hβ (486 nm) deep blue O-III (496 nm and 501 nm) greenish blue to green S-II (672 nm) deeper red The color mapping the author uses is called the Hubble Space Telescope pallet, where hydrogen = green, sulfur = red, and oxygen = blue. [1] http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/code/wavelength_to_rgb/wavelength.html http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~yetkin/code/wavelength_to_rgb/wave...
dylan604 6y ago
Depends on what you mean by real colors. The light is so faint, that human eyes cannot make it out. However, long exposure photography with a CMOS sensor will bring out colors without any filters. Are those the real colors? There are tons of examples of these types of shots. Search for The World At Night (TWAN) for some great examples
ImprovedSilence 6y ago
To the naked eye from earth, it looks black and white, and you wouldn't be able to see that much detail. What they "really" are is more complicated, as indicated by other responses.