@holvek: The James Webb Space Telescope creates its famous images in several stages: from collecting invisible infrared light to digitally "coloring" it on Earth. Because distant cosmic objects are moving away from us, their light stretches into the infrared spectrum, which is invisible to the human eye. The telescope's massive gold-coated mirror collects these faint rays and directs them toward ultra-sensitive cameras that are shielded from the Sun's heat by a giant sunshield. The telescope's cameras do not take color photographs; instead, they capture the object through specialized filters, creating a series of black-and-white exposures at different wavelengths. This data is converted into digital code and transmitted to Earth via radio waves. At the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), these raw files are cleaned of cosmic noise, calibrated, and prepared for final assembly. To turn the black-and-white data into a vivid masterpiece, scientists use a process called chromatic ordering. They assign visible colors based on energy levels: the shortest infrared waves are assigned blue, medium waves get green, and the longest waves become red. Layering these exposures creates a composite image with physically accurate colors that clearly map out different gases, dust, and hidden star clusters, making the invisible universe visible. #nasa #Science #spacetok #astro

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Monday 02 November 2026 08:19:24 GMT