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My kid asked why we only see the 'pretty' space pictures | Astronomy Photos - Vivisector

My kid asked why we only see the 'pretty' space pictures

I was showing my 8-year-old a Hubble image of a nebula last night and she asked why we never see the 'ugly' parts of space, which made me realize how much editing and color choice shapes what we think astronomy looks like.

4 comments

4 Comments

the_oliver3mo ago

...and honestly @barbara_jenkins66 is right about the editing helping with science. Friend of mine works at a planetarium, told me they strip all the color out of raw Hubble data and rebuild it channel by channel. Makes you realize those images are more like maps than photographs. But I get why your kid asked that. Space is probably mostly black and boring gray if you were floating there.

sarahpark6mo ago

Oh, that's such a sharp observation from your kid. I read an article once about how the colors in those nebula photos are often added to represent different gases or highlight scientific details, not necessarily what our eyes would see. It really does shape our whole idea of what's out there.