12 steps · 12 min
How Space Gets Its Colors
Twelve images show how telescopes turn wavelengths and measurements into color.
Learning objective
By the end of the Trail, a visitor should be able to distinguish visible color, mapped wavelength color, multi-observatory composites and inferred data overlays without treating any of them as less truthful.
- 01
Color can be data
Is every color in an astronomical image captured as light?
Webb Data Reveals Dark Matter - 02
Beyond the eye
What changes when the detector receives ultraviolet instead of visible light?
Face on Barred and Ringed Spiral Galaxy NGC 3351 - 03
Looking through dust
Which structures appear or disappear between visible and infrared views?
Unwrapping the Pillars - 04
Infrared is a spectrum
Why can one nebula have several different infrared portraits?
Eagle Nebula Flaunts its Infrared Feathers - 05
Two bands, three colors
What does white mean when red and blue are data channels?
Tarantula Nebula Spitzer 2-Color Image - 06
Dark does not mean empty
What is hidden inside the visible-light dust lanes?
New Views of a Familiar Beauty - 07
Combining observatories
What can two instruments contribute to one shared frame?
Crab Nebula, as Seen by Herschel and Hubble - 08
Reading a color key
Can you separate X-ray structure from infrared structure before reading the caption?
The Pacman Nebula - 09
Three telescopes, one region
Where do X-ray, optical and infrared observations overlap?
A New View of the Tarantula Nebula - 10
Color as wavelength
How does the image encode four infrared wavelength ranges?
SOFIA Reveals How the Swan Nebula Hatched - 11
False color, true measurement
What does false color actually claim—and what does it not claim?
A Shocking Surprise in Stephan Quintet - 12
A spectrum assembled
How many physical stories can one composite hold without becoming one literal view?
Observatories Combine to Crack Open the Crab Nebula