Now we're talking.
Cosmic cliffs & a sea of stars. @NASAWebb reveals baby stars in the Carina Nebula, where ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds shape colossal walls of dust and gas. https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/dXCokBAYGQ
— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022
Take Five: Captured in exquisite detail, @NASAWebb peered through the thick dust of Stephan’s Quintet, a galaxy cluster showing huge shockwaves and tidal tails. This is a front-row seat to galactic evolution: https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse pic.twitter.com/em9wSJPkEU
— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022
Some stars go out with a bang. In these images of the Southern Ring planetary nebula, @NASAWebb shows a dying star cloaked by dust and layers of light. Explore this star's final performance at https://t.co/63zxpNDi4I #UnfoldTheUniverse. pic.twitter.com/dfzrpvrewQ
— NASA (@NASA) July 12, 2022
NOTE: If you're wondering how they get colors out of all the infrared, it goes more or less like this:
In the visible spectrum, our brains convert different wavelengths into colors. Our eyes can't see into infrared, but we can pretend that the different infrared wavelengths are colors too. It's all just something our brain does to make sense of different wavelengths anyway. So we take the near-infrared signals in the Webb images and color them blue. The near part of the mid-infrared gets tagged as green, and the mid-infrared is red.
There's awesome math and computer automation that goes into making this realistic, but this is basically what they're doing. It's just a computer brain that's transforming wavelengths into colors instead of a human brain.
It makes me sad that human life is so short we don't get to follow the evolution of these remarkable events as they unfold.
People thought Power of the Dog was a slog.
Not sure that the computer operations are that complex - they're just combining wavelengths in pixels. (not complex compared to compressing 60-120 fps videos for streaming). But it takes some artistry to choose color combinations that look spectacular without looking weird or phony.
When I read the headline, it didn't sound quite right. Then Twitter verified it. It's StephAn's Quintet
But why use colors we already use? Why not use puce? Taupe? Mauve? I once saw a car (a Porsche for god's sake) painted with a color I called seasick green. Let's use that!
Thank you. I've been wondering how Webb's infrared "vision" translates to the pictures provided to the public. I've followed you from your CalPundit days to today, and you regularly clear up puzzles just like this one for me. Thanks!