Create Your Own Image
These images use actual data taken by the telescopes credited. Pick one, bring in its colors, shape the light, and save an image that's uniquely yours.
Where do the colors come from?
Many astronomical images begin as separate black-and-white images. Astronomers use filters to capture different kinds of light, one at a time, then combine them into a color image.
RGB: the colors we see
Astronomers take three black-and-white images through red, green and blue filters.
Combined, they produce colors close to what our eyes would see. The colors come from stars, glowing gas, and dust reflecting starlight.
SHO: the colors of glowing gases
Each gas glows at its own precise color of light. Astronomers capture each one separately through a very narrow filter, then assign it a color. Further adjustments give many Hubble images their gold-and-blue look.
These assigned colors show where the different gases are found.
Choose an image
Each card is a real telescope image, split into its separate filters. Click one to load it below.
Create your own image
Bring in each filter’s color, shape the light, then compare with the original and save your image.
Color
Try this:
Light
Gray shape: where the image's brightness levels sit. Gold line: how your settings remap them.
Refine and compare
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
See the invisible
Telescopes that see radio waves and other invisible light reveal things no ordinary camera can. Pick a galaxy, then slide to reveal what's hidden in its visible-light image.
- Spot it
- This light