Question about supernova

I think we can all agree that the images of the are beautiful, but I was wondering if they actually look that colorful or if the images we see are the different compilations of pictures from different instruments each focusing on a certain gas. I hope this made sense...

Thanks ATS.

The colors turn out as so, due to various 'filters' attached onto certain telescopes that pick up various wavelengths. I believe the filters consist of Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, Blue, Indigo, and Violet. I may be wrong but I believe this process is call Spectroscopy.



"When astronomers observe supernovae, they do so today using telescopes working at various wavelengths. With optical telescopes, with which most of us are familiar, astronomers measure the amount of light being emitted by a supernova, as seen from Earth, usually through a number of light filters. From these measurements, they can determine how the luminosity, or brightness, and color of a supernova evolves, or, varies with time."

Source: spider.ipac.caltech.edu...

Spectroscopy definiton: physics.about.com...

So to answer your question, I believe that the wavelengths (which can be used to make color visible to humans) occurs naturally in supernova.

[edit on 18/9/2008 by agent violet]

reply to post by Schmidt1989


It depends. Some images are "natural" colors, others show "colors" that are actually invisible to the human eye.

If you're really interested, here's a pretty detailed but understandable explanation:
Hubble colors

I've seen nebula in photos, the remains of exploding stars.

The red is true color hydrogen gas electrically excited and not neon gas.
Even though a star must run out of hydrogen to explode
I wonder where all the hydrogen comes from.

reply to post by TeslaandLyne


A star doesn't go Nova because it runs out, but because it's no longer able to hold fusion. So, it's run low on hudrogen, but still have plenty left for a light show.

smidt hope this helps





The composite view of the supernova splits into its three components: blue-green for Chandra, yellow for Hubble, and red for Spitzer. Each observatory's full image is then shown for side-by-side comparison, beginning with Chandra, then Hubble, and finally Spitzer
www.nasa.gov...

infared supernovae

www.astronomy.com...




full field Chandra X ray / Hubble
chandra.harvard.edu...



Edit to add


[edit on 9/19/2008 by altered_states]

Altered states, thanks a bunch, that really helps. Thats what I thought, but was kinda hoping i was wrong, because the pictures doo look so awesome. Well, now I know. Thank you.