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Are colours in astronomical images real?

Images of galaxies and nebulae often look very colourful. But where do these colours come from? Are they real? What do they mean?

In this episode of Chasing Starlight we show you everything that goes behind the scenes when making astronomical images, from how astronomical detectors actually work to how we choose what colours to display.

Kredit:

ESO

Directed by: L. Calçada, M. Kornmesser
Hosted by: S. Randall
Written by: D. Curic, P. Freeman, and J. C. Muñoz Mateos
Editing: M. Kornmesser
Videography: A. Tsaousis, M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada
Animations & Infographics: ESO, M. Kornmesser, L. Calçada
Footage and photos: ESO, Igor Chekalin, G. Beccari, M. Kornmesser, Sergey Stepanenko, S. Guisard (www.eso.org/~sguisard), H. Drass et al., VPHAS+ team, Acknowledgement: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit, WFI (Optical), MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A.Weiss et al. (Submillimetre), NASA/CXC/CfA/R.Kraft et al. (X-ray), NASA/ESA, Wikipedia
Music: Videvo
Web and technical support: G. Bazin and R. Y. Shida
Scientific consultant: J. C. Muñoz Mateos
Promotion: O. Sandu
Filming Locations: ESO Supernova (supernova.eso.org)
Produced by ESO, the European Southern Observatory (eso.org)