This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies.
This view of dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud is possible thanks to Hubble’s cameras, such as the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that collected the observations for this image. WFC3 holds a variety of filters, and each lets through specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. This image combines observations made with five different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see.
The wispy gas clouds in this image resemble brightly colored cotton candy. When viewing such a vividly colored cosmic scene, it is natural to wonder whether the colors are ‘real’. After all, Hubble, with its 7.8-foot-wide (2.4 m) mirror and advanced scientific instruments, doesn’t bear resemblance to a typical camera! When image-processing specialists combine raw filtered data into a multi-colored image like this one, they assign a color to each filter. Visible-light observations typically correspond to the color that the filter allows through. Shorter wavelengths of light such as ultraviolet are usually assigned blue or purple, while longer wavelengths like infrared are typically red.
This color scheme closely represents reality while adding new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see. However, there are endless possible color combinations that can be employed to achieve an especially aesthetically pleasing or scientifically insightful image.
Learn how Hubble images are taken and processed.
Text credit: ESA/Hubble
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
这张由美国国家航空航天局（NASA）和欧洲航天局（ESA）合作的哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的图像，展现了银河系邻近星系之一——麦哲伦大星云中的一片璀璨云海。麦哲伦大星云是一颗矮星系，位于剑鱼座和圆规座方向，距离地球约16万光年，是银河系众多小型伴星系中最大的一个。
图中所见的尘埃气体云团之所以能被如此清晰地捕捉，得益于哈勃望远镜上的先进仪器，特别是第三代广域照相机（Wide Field Camera 3, WFC3）。WFC3配备了多种滤光片，每种滤光片仅允许特定波长或颜色的光通过。本图像结合了使用五种不同滤光片所拍摄的观测数据，其中包括一些捕捉人眼无法看见的紫外线和红外线光谱。
图中这些轻盈缥缈的气体云团，色彩斑斓，如同太空中的棉花糖。在面对如此色彩鲜艳的宇宙景象时，人们自然会好奇：这些颜色是真实的吗？毕竟，哈勃望远镜配备的是一面直径7.8英尺（约2.4米）的主镜和一系列高精度科学仪器，它与我们日常使用的相机完全不同。在图像处理专家将原始的多波段观测数据合成为这种多彩图像时，通常会为每种滤光片分配一种颜色。可见光滤镜对应的颜色通常接近人眼所见；波长较短的紫外线常被赋予蓝色或紫色，而波长较长的红外线则常以红色呈现。
这种配色方式在尽可能贴近真实的同时，也呈现出人眼无法感知的电磁波段信息。当然，为了实现特定的科学目标或艺术效果，图像中也可以采用多种配色组合。
文字来源: ESA/Hubble
图片来源: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
