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That viral shot of the Orion Nebula got me thinking about false color
I keep seeing that photo from the James Webb telescope floating around on my feed and everyone is calling it the most accurate view of Orion. But I read the actual data description from the STScI page and they straight up admit they mapped infrared to visible colors. So that purple and gold cloud is not what you would see if you were floating right there. I get that scientists need to make data visible but calling it a photo feels misleading to me. My dad is an amateur astronomer and he showed me what Orion actually looks through a 10 inch dob and it is nothing like that. Why is everyone okay with calling processed data a photo instead of an interpretation? Has anyone else checked the original papers on these color assignments?
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jason_lewis31mo ago
Most accurate view of Orion" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. I mean, yeah, if your eyes can see infrared, sure, it's accurate. But nobody's eyeballs work that way. It's a data visualization, not a photo. My buddy's a graphic designer and he likes to point out that even the Hubble deep field images are heavily colorized. So it's not exactly a secret, it's just how space photography works. I get why people get annoyed, but is it really that big of a deal? We already know the sun isn't yellow, yet nobody complains about all those orange sunset pics.
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wadew511mo ago
Oh man, this whole thing reminds me of when my cousin bought a 4k TV just to watch old black and white movies on it. He spent an hour trying to convince me the colorization was "what it would have looked like" and I'm just sitting there like, you're adding colors from your brain, man. It's not the same as a real photo and pretending it is just makes it weirder.
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grays131mo ago
People really get worked up about this stuff but honestly who cares if a space photo has some colors added. It's not like anyone is out here claiming the universe looks like a rainbow just because the image is pretty. The real issue is people need something to be mad about on the internet. Have another look at that wadew51 guy's cousin story, thats the same vibe. Just let the scientists make their pictures look cool and move on with your day.
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