Universe... Now In Color
Janet Kuypers
01/13/11
so I heard the NASA artist in residence
talk about the images we see from Hubble
and I’ve seen these telescope photos
the colors from galaxy clusters and nebulas
is mind-boggling
but they explained that when images come in
they are all digital
a series of ones, a series of zeros
and there’s no color in the images at all
I mean, astronauts describe outer space
as an amazingingly vast black void
so when people get the data from these images
they imagine the heat radiating from these objects
I mean, you know,
red is hot
blue is cold
that they think about what looks best for the images
and I thought
hmmm
but you know, this cluster looks perfect in pink
and I think this galaxy should really be red
this gamma ray burst looks great in green
the clouds around this orange nebula look better in blue
let’s even show these planetary rings in green and purple
I mean really, this is what they do?
i know these images in outer space are beautiful
but I didn’t know that they literally were an art form
Hubble takes pictures of objects in space
with different filters to capture light rays
the human eye can’t see
so when we get final full color images from Hubble
they are nothing like what the Universe really is
outer space:
abstract art
maybe imaging astronomy
is actually
existential art
Copyright © 2011 Janet Kuypers.
All rights reserved. No material
may be reprinted without express permission.
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